For Jean-Pierre Raffarin, “the street is only a fraction of the people, it is not the people”
For the former Prime Minister, despite the polls and the mobilizations, “the executive has not lost the battle of opinion” about the pension reform.
“The street does not govern, it is only a fraction of the people, it is not the people”, launched Jean-Pierre Raffarin on the set of BFMTV.
“The people are represented in the National Assembly and in the Senate (…). Now we have to know if there is a parliamentary majority and make our representative democracy work”, he added.
Jean-Pierre Raffarin judges that the pension reform “is going in the right direction but is insufficient”
Jean-Pierre Raffarin believes on BFMTV that the pension reform “is going in the right direction but is insufficient”.
“This reform will have to be done, if it’s not today, it’s tomorrow,” he said.
However, the former Prime Minister considers that the present reform only regulates “the horizons to 2030” but that there remain “uncertainties from 2040”.
“It does not go far enough to ensure the financing of our social model in the very long term”, he concludes.
For Jean-Luc Mélenchon, “everyone knows it’s a useless reform”
During a rally in Paris, Jean-Luc Mélenchon spoke about the pension reform.
“Everyone knows it’s a useless reform,” said the leader of La France insoumise.
While next week will be marked by a day of union mobilization, Jean-Luc Mélenchon assures that “the country is focused on the question of pensions” and that the “battle” will be “very determined”.
Towards a “suspension” Thursday evening of the social movement at Totalenergies
After a renewal of the movement “almost everywhere on the territory” Thursday afternoon, “we are heading on many sites towards a suspension this evening, for resumption next Tuesday.
There is a good chance that there won’t be much tomorrow,” Eric Sellini, CGT manager at TotalEnergies, told AFP.
The CGT had initially filed a notice for Thursday and Friday.
More information here.
6,938 amendments tabled on the text in the Assembly, almost half from LFI
The National Assembly will get to the heart of the matter on Monday, with the examination of the pension reform project in the Social Affairs Committee. A total of 6938 amendments were tabled. The LFI group alone is behind almost half of these amendments – 3345.
Gasoline: “stocks are rather high, no wind of panic”
On BFMTV, Pierre Auclair, co-founder of Essence & Co underlines that this new day of strike in refineries has no consequence on the availability of fuels in stations.
“Today, there is gasoline in all the stations, it is anecdotal the stations which have supply difficulties. It remains very limited on French territory at this time” he indicates .
“We are very far from the September-October situation, stocks are rather high and there is no wind of panic”.
Véran recognizes that “the message” of the government “is struggling to get through”
During this same tense microphone, Olivier Véran all the same recognized that the distrust of public opinion showed “that the government still has this work of explaining the reform” to do. “Our message in favor of long careers, so-called ‘super long’ careers, is struggling to get through,” he said in particular.
“Since in fact within the framework of this pension reform, we favor these young people who start precisely very early”, he assured. Olivier Véran further declared: “Apprenticeship counts in pension contributions and in reality these young people who had started before the age of 16 will retire at 58, or 60 depending on the career”.
Opinion polls unfavorable to the reform: Véran calls not to “judge an entire strategy by the yardstick of a poll”
The polls follow one another on the perception that the French have of the pension reform project, and testify to their growing hostility to the government’s plans. Our Elabe poll published yesterday appeared particularly scathing, with 72% of our fellow citizens saying their opposition to the project – a number now increased by a majority of retirees. To the point of worrying at the highest point and in high places, from the majority to the ministerial cabinets.
Olivier Véran, Minister for Democratic Renewal and above all spokesperson for the government, wanted to be calm when answering questions from the press this Thursday afternoon during a trip to Paris. “You don’t judge a whole strategy by the yardstick of a poll,” he said, before admitting: “Even if we watch it with interest, it’s important.”
“We are not denying once again that the reform is not the most popular reform of the five-year term, but this is never the case with a pension reform,” he continued. “We want to explain why we are doing it, why we have no alternative to balancing pensions,” he said again.
Strikes: refineries and power plants in slow motion
EDF thus deplored at midday a “loss of available power” on its hydraulic park of 1560 MW, the equivalent of more than one nuclear reactor, on its website.
These reductions in production or availability should not cause power cuts, as they are supervised by the manager of the high and very high voltage lines RTE.
In refineries, only fuel shipments to depots are blocked at this stage.
At TotalEnergies, the CGT reported Thursday morning 100% strikers at the Flanders depot (North), 80% at the Normandy refinery, 60% at the La Mède bio-refinery (Bouches-du-Rhône), 50% at the Donges refinery (Loire-Atlantique) and 30% at the Grandpuits site (Seine-et-Marne), which is however undergoing conversion and no longer ships fuel.
Increase in the retirement age: Marine Le Pen wants to “put pressure on the LRs” so that “the law does not pass”.
Marine Le Pen said she was “optimistic that the pension law will not pass”.
“We have to put pressure on the LRs”, still judged the former RN presidential candidate.
She also hopes “to wince some reluctant majority deputies” like Barbara Pompili.
Pensions: For Marine Le Pen, “more and more French people understand that this reform is brutal”
Traveling to Isbergues in the Pas-de-Calais, Marine Le Pen harshly criticized the postponement of the retirement age.
“More and more French people understand that this reform is useless, brutal and ineffective”, judged the boss of the RN deputies at the microphone of BFMTV.
Pensions: 24-hour strike at the Fos-sur-Mer refinery (Esso)
“We have been on a day without shipping products since 5 a.m.” due to a strike at the Fos-sur-Mer refinery, said Lionel Arbiol, CGT delegate from ESSO, on BFMTV. this Thursday.
As a result, “there is no distribution of fuel, whether by truck or wagon, until tomorrow at 5 a.m.”, indicates the trade unionist, who specifies that this action may be renewed in the coming days.
“We will continue to be in action as long as the government does not want to withdraw its reform project”, affirms Lionel Arbiol. The scenario of a blockage for several days is “conceivable”, he said.
“If we were to increase the balance of power and switch to renewables, the debate will be set up in each refinery to see if we would go so far as to stop the installations”, finally declared the CGT delegate from ESSO to the Fos-sur-Mer refinery.
Dockers, refiners and electricians are mobilizing this Thursday against the pension reform
Welcome to this live dedicated to a new day of action against pension reform. This Thursday, dockers but also refinery employees such as electricians are on strike against the pension reform.
Find the update on strikes in refineries via this link.