And seven. This Saturday, the unions are calling to demonstrate for the seventh time against the pension reform, counting on a new show of force at the start of a decisive week. “It’s the home stretch (…) It’s now that it will be played”, insisted the deputy general secretary of the CFDT, Marylise Léon, on France Info.
“We must mobilize, including by blocking”, affirmed on RMC the secretary general of Force Ouvrière, Frédéric Souillot, stressing that “on the roundabouts, the industrial zones, the teams are there and the mobilization is massive and determined “.
According to an Elabe poll for BFMTV published on Saturday, 63% of French people approve of the mobilization against the reform, 54% supporting the use of strikes and the blocking of certain sectors. According to police sources, participation on Saturday could reach 800,000 to one million people in the 230 demonstrations planned in France.
70,000 to 100,000 demonstrators are expected in Paris, where the procession will set off at 2 p.m. from Place de la République. On February 11, already a Saturday, 963,000 people took to the streets according to the Ministry of the Interior, and more than 2.5 million according to the CGT.
“A kind of headlong rush” from the government
The general secretary of the CFDT regretted Friday the refusal of the president of the Republic to meet the unions, as they had made the request to him in a solemn letter Thursday. “Sad disregard for workers and social democracy,” he tweeted.
“Macron’s refusal to accept the inter-union letter, the fact of speeding up the voting procedure in the Senate, all the same gives the sign of a kind of headlong rush by this government. We think it will rather stir up anger than anything else, ”commented Murielle Guilbert, co-delegate general of Solidaires, to AFP.