“There is only this appointment that counts,” said the national secretary of the Communist Party, again calling for a referendum on the subject.
The national secretary of the French Communist Party, Fabien Roussel, urged on Saturday “a million” of French “to roam the streetson January 19, the first day of union and political mobilization against the pension reform. “Public, private, young, retired, we all have to go out massively (…) Let’s be 1 million to break into the street. Only this meeting matters“, declared Fabien Roussel in the Sunday newspaper .
At a meeting in Toulouse, LFI deputy Clémentine Autain also felt that on January 19, we must “put the package“. “This is when we establish the balance of power“. “The higher we start, the more obviously the rise in power will be strong“, she insisted to AFP. CGT boss Philippe Martinez also hopes “millionsof French mobilized on January 19.
A referendum, the most “democratic»
Fabien Roussel has again proposed submitting the pension reform to a referendum rather than a vote in Parliament. “We want a real debate on progressive pension reform. The people must be fully involved.» «A referendum is six months of campaigning. What could be more democratic than engaging in a debate in the factories, the universities, the media, project against project?“, underlined the deputy.
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The government’s plan aims to gradually raise the retirement age to 64, instead of the current 62, while accelerating the extension of the contribution period. The main unions, unanimously opposed to this reform, will mobilize next Thursday for a first day of strikes and demonstrations. The entire left has called for joining the protest.
These last weeks, “Emmanuel Macron organized a sham consultation: the changes made to the initial project do not detract from its brutality for millions of employees. It is he who makes the choice of weapons“, lamented Fabien Roussel.
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