The anger of the French is so great after 5 days of useless mobilization against the pension reform that, from now on, anything can happen to make the executive bend. Anything.
After weeks of stormy debates in the Assembly, after five days of two strong mobilizations in the streets supported by a massive rejection of the bill by 72% of the population, what must be done so that the executive finally understands that its pension reform must be withdrawn? Withdrawn before the people, exasperated, explode with anger, as it has happened, a few times, in the course of our History.
The apparatchiks
Because this reform project is incomprehensible. Ambiguity on long careers, on the 1200 € minimum pension, on the 43 years of contributions for those who started working early. The more it is explained to us, the less we understand this text, badly put together, badly presented, incoherent, full of contradictory figures. A real concentrate of egghead juice from out-of-touch technocrats who have absolutely no idea of the reality of the field, that of work and retirement.
Besides, how many of them have really “worked” in their lives? Yes, worked in a factory or in a field, on the boss’s ass, with strict schedules, infernal cadences and miserable wages? And, at the end of the day, a shitty retirement.
Olivier Dussopt? The Minister of Labor who broke his voice to defend an indefensible reform is nothing more than an apparatchik, a permanent political activist who has made a career in the shadow of the socialist party. He was elected then minister. His old age is assured.
Gabriel Attal? The Minister Delegate of Public Accounts is another superb apparatchik who has also made a career in the wake of the Socialist Party. In the Assembly as well as in front of the cameras and microphones, he is not stingy with his comments. He preaches the good word, makes often hollow sentences, says everything and its opposite with an aplomb that leaves one breathless. He doesn’t have to worry about his retirement either.
“Shifting the legal age would be hypocritical” (Macron 2017)
As for Emmanuel Macron, he takes the cake. He may laugh at the division of the opposition “without a compass” and “totally lost”, asserting that this reform is “indispensable”, he lets the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne and the two ministers mentioned above, go to the front, preferring to deal, him, with foreign policy, far from the rantings of the rabble.
Has he forgotten what he said during the 2017 election campaign about postponing the legal retirement age?
Let’s quote him: “In the next five years, I do not propose to shift the retirement age. That is not fair. And the ones who are sacrificed are those who are now around 60 years old. Do we need to raise the legal retirement age, which is now 62? I don’t think so. For two reasons: the first is that I have committed myself not to do so. It’s better to do what we said. Because we are doing a much broader, much deeper reform, which is to create a points-based reform. […] The second reason is that as long as we haven’t solved the problem of unemployment in our country, frankly, it would be quite hypocritical to shift the legal age.”
The stooges of the Macronie
How can the French believe politicians after such perjury? How can ministers defend a text that today proposes the opposite of what they defended with the same force six years ago?
Unless, as I believe, they are mere stooges of the Macronie, careerists without convictions, political mercenaries, passing from one camp to the other, according to their personal interests, without any shame.
Maybe that’s why the French despise them so much, that more and more of them don’t go and vote for this mediocre and immoral political class.
However, today, it is not only about contempt. It is about anger and even rage against the executive who has appropriated democracy; against a handful of men and women who do not want to hear the will of the people.
After 5 days of dignified mobilization all over France, the day of March 7, 2023, looks like a popular uprising of a rare magnitude during which anything can happen.
Whose fault is it?
The text on the #retirements will continue his career in the Senate. THE #7mar the trade unions and the millions of workers who support them will say even more strongly #64yrsIsNo. The voice of the world of work is expressed through them. Let’s not disguise it.
— Laurent Berger (@CfdtBerger) February 18, 2023