For the second day in a row, large French cities registered spontaneous protests, which in Paris resulted in at least 60 arreststo protest against the unpopular reform of the pensions of the Government of Emmanuel Macronapproved Thursday by decree and without a vote in the National Assembly.
As happened the previous day, thousands of people, many of them young people, expressed their discontent with the measure in the symbolic Parisian Place de la Concorde, without the umbrella of a party or union organization. In addition to the 60 arrests, five policemen were injured.
In the midst of the mobilization in La Concordia, a huge bonfire was litin which they burned cardboard effigies of Macron, whom they accuse of “turn your back” on democracy for approving the reform thanks to article 49.3 of the Constitutionwhich allows for certain bills to bypass the parliamentary vote.
The protest ended with the intervention of riot police, who surrounded the entire emblematic square with troops.
Other cities like Toulouse, Bordeaux, Lyon and Strasbourg They also registered demonstrations.
On Thursday night, the tension was greater, as the security forces detained hundreds of protesters, a good part of them in Paris, and they had to face the burning of cars, street furniture and the erection of barricades.
This Friday, the battle against unpopular pension reform it sharpened.
With the Paris ring road cut for half an hour, high schools blocked, 10,000 tons of garbage accumulated in the capital or the invasion of railways in Bordeaux (south-west) and Toulon (south-east), the discontent of the French took many forms.
We are sorry for this announcement. [del gobierno] like an insult. They haven’t heard from us for weeks. This generated a lot of anger, ”he told the news agency AFP Philippe Melaine, a high school teacher in Rennes (west), where more than 2,000 people They demonstrated on Friday.
The day before, the liberal president Emmanuel Macron decided to adopt his reform, without submitting it to the vote of the deputies, fearing a defeat in Parliament, by virtue of a legal mechanism: the controversial article 49.3 of the Constitution.
Your goal is delay the retirement age from 62 to 64 by 2030 and advance to 2027 the requirement to contribute 43 years (and not 42 as now) to collect a full pension. Two out of three French people, according to polls, are opposed.
To prevent this, the opposition presented two motions of censure: one from the independent group LIOT and another from the extreme right. If at least one is approved -something complicated-, the government of Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne and the reform would fall.
“Social Explosion”
The government is under pressure. For observers, the use of article 49.3 was a “failure” and symbolizes Macron’s “weakness”, who is gambling with this reform his ability to act during his second term.
“The president could save the furniture by announcing that the law will be repealed after this undemocratic adoption. But it is not like him to listen to the French ”, reads the editorial of the left-wing newspaper Liberation.
For the moment, the decision prompted a response in the streets, which had lost strength in recent days after experiencing the March 7th the biggest protest against a social reform in three decades with between 1.28 and 3.5 million demonstrators, at the request of the unions.
But the latter are “afraid” that the social movement will surpass them and become radicalized, he told the news agency AFP the president of the CFTC, Cyril Chabnier, who recalled that they already warned the government that, if it did not listen and use 49.3, there would be “risks of a social explosion.”
Hundreds of people gathered again on Friday afternoon at the Place de la Concorde in Paris. On Thursday, the police already evacuated the place with charges, water cannons and tear gas. The protests, in various cities, left 310 detainees that day.
Waiting for the new day of massive protests called by the unions next Thursday, the leftist leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon called for “spontaneous mobilizations.” Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin warned that he will not allow them or “disorder” either.
The energy sector, spearhead of the strikes extendable for ten days, his pulse quickened. The strikers threatened to shut down two refineries by Monday.
The authorities recommended cancel 30% of flights on Monday at the Parisian airport of Orly, 10% more than this week.
Motions of no confidence
After 49.3, the prime minister appears very weakened, defending the dialogue with the opposition for months to try to approve a reform that sought to balance the pension fund. “Our vocation is to continue governing,” said the spokesman for the Executive, Olivier Véran.
On Monday afternoon, according to parliamentary sources, the government will face two motions of no confidence. The one presented by LIOT can obtain the maximum support, but it would fall short of 30 votes out of the 287 necessary to bring down the government and the reform.
The left-wing Nupes front, Marine Le Pen’s far-right group and LIOT deputies will vote in favour, but not the right-wing opposition party Los Republicanos, which negotiated the reform with the ruling party despite the rejection of some twenty dissident deputies.
In this pulse, Macron, re-elected in April until 2027 and who is not affected by the motion, even threatened to dissolve the Assembly, if it finally knocked down his reform. According to the polls, the extreme right would be the beneficiary of an electoral advance.
(With information from AFP)
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Source-www.infobae.com