This Tuesday, February 7, took place the third day of mobilization against the pension reform, in France. According to figures from the CGT and the Ministry of the Interior, the processions were a little less provided than the previous days, while in the Assembly, the examination of the bill promises to be complicated.
Some 757,000 people demonstrated in France on Tuesday for the third day of mobilization against the pension reform of the government of Elisabeth Borne, according to the police, while, for its part, the CGT union counted nearly 2 million demonstrators. .
The Parisian mobilization brought together 57,000 people, according to the Ministry of the Interior, and 400,000 according to the General Confederation of Labour. Determined demonstrators who, despite these declining influence scores, believe more and more in victory in this social conflict.
This is the case of Gina, sales assistant met by our special correspondent, Alexis Bedu, and which was on its third day of strike. Or Nadia, a school teacher demonstrating with a sign in her hand, rising up against the attitude of the government. But also the case of Jean-Baptiste.
I’m 60 years old, and I don’t see myself working beyond 62, what, I’m exhausted. I started to project myself, and then everything collapsed.
Report in the demonstration of Paris
In the south of France, in Marseille, the fight continues
In Marseille, still at the call of the inter-union, the organizers claim 180,000 demonstrators, the police having counted 15,000. In any case, this is less than last week for the second city in the country, where many workers don’t see themselves going to age 64.
Nadège demonstrated in the Old Port. She is a childcare worker, a job that requires a lot of energy. Our correspondent on site, Yoram Melloulalso met Anne, kindergarten teacher, and many caregivers including Anna, physiotherapist.
Again, protesters think it will be possible to roll back Emmanuel Macron and the government. Even if Djamel, of all the demonstrations, does not have the impression of being heard, this employee of a cleaning company believes in it, the street will succeed in stopping this reform.
The government closes its ears, its eyes, we are talking to a wall in fact. We demonstrate in front of a wall that does not react
Report within the Marseille procession
In the north, Boulogne-sur-Mer remains mobilized
Some unions want a hardening of the movement, with new days of mobilization, pending that of the weekend. Especially since many provincial towns have seen processions less provided too, according to figures from the authorities and organizers.
Among the medium-sized towns mobilized: Boulogne-sur-Mer, France’s leading fishing port, in Pas-de-Calais. Rather than joining a larger procession, in one of the neighboring towns of Hauts-de-France, thousands of demonstrators still descended to pound the pavement on Tuesday.
They were 8,500 demonstrators during the first two days of the strike. This Tuesday morning, they were around 6,000, according to the inter-union. The anger is still there, it even tends to increase, has been able to see Amelie Beaucourwho handed them the microphone for the antennas of RFI.
It’s 35 euros per day, per strike day. There, it is already the third, so it is necessary to calculate. It is a sacrifice.
Report on the demonstration in Boulogne-sur-Mer
In the procession of Boulogne-sur-Mer, a demonstrator is clearly causing a sensation. Since “they want to sink our pensions”, Sébastien, a teacher in a high school in the city, has therefore put on his diving suit. With mask and snorkel. #february7demonstration pic.twitter.com/sDDPF2DWQj
— Raphael Godet (@Raphaelgodet) February 7, 2023
►To re-read: France: drop in mobilization against the pension reform, according to the first figures
In Parliament, deliberations on pressure
The examination of the pension reform continues in the National Assembly. Second day of debate on Tuesday, an examination which is advancing at a snail’s speed: 20,000 amendments must be examined before the end of the week, and the atmosphere in the hemicycle remained quite tense on Tuesday evening.
A little quieter than the day before anyway, in a room still full, where few places are empty. But tempers flare almost every time Gabriel Attal, the Minister of Public Accounts, speaks for the government.
” We’re going to spend a number of days together, so it’s not bad if we can listen to each other. “Launched the minister during the day towards the benches of the left. Nupes deputies who must always defend themselves, often loudly, from playing the obstruction in this parliamentary debate.
MEPs have only just started examining Article 1. This text has 20 in total. To get an idea of the balance of forces present, the first vote on this text took place at the beginning of the evening, concerning an amendment aimed at deleting the introductory article.
While it is this article which explains why the government must now reform the pension system, the deletion amendment was rejected by only ten votes, which is very few and says a lot about the fragile majority available for the government right now to vote on the rest.
Some of the Republican deputies, on the right, are still resisting. They were also not in the hemicycle in the evening, at the time of this first vote, which really does not facilitate the task of the team of Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne.
At the Bourbon Palace,
Pierrick Bonno