French pension reform plan triggers new strikes, protests

PARIS (AP) – Fresh nationwide strikes disrupted public transport and schools, as well as electricity, oil and gas supplies in France on Tuesday, while tens of thousands of protesters marched in a third round of protests against proposed pension reforms.

The protests came a day after French lawmakers began debating a pension law that would raise the minimum pension from age 62 to 64. The law is the flagship of President Emmanuel Macron’s second term.

Tens of thousands demonstrated in the cities of Nice, Marseille, Toulouse, Nantes and elsewhere, as well as in Paris. Protesters in the French capital, many of whom were young, peacefully marched out of the Opera district carrying placards reading “Save Your Pension” and “Tax Billionaires, Not Grandmas”.

France’s current pension system “is a democratic achievement in the sense that it’s a French specialty that other countries envy,” said one protester, media worker Anissa Saudemont, 29.

“I think that with high inflation, unemployment, the war in Ukraine and climate change, the government should focus on something else,” she added.

According to the authorities, an estimated 1.27 million people demonstrated last week, more than on the first major day of protests on January 19. Further demonstrations were planned for Saturday, to which the eight largest French unions had called.

Rail operator SNCF said train services were severely disrupted across the country on Tuesday, including on its high-speed network. International lines to the UK and Switzerland were affected. The Paris subway was also disrupted.

Saad Kadiui, 37, an advisory cabinet chef who had to navigate through a disrupted Paris train station on Tuesday, said he did not support the “tiring” strikes. “There are other ways to protest the pension reform,” he said.

Kadiui said he supports the principle of pension reform but would like the bill to be improved in parliament. “I think 64 is too late for some jobs,” he said.

Electricity producer EDF said the protest movement has resulted in temporarily reduced electricity supply without causing blackouts. According to the company, more than half of the workforce in the TotalEnergies refineries went on strike.

The education ministry said nearly 13% of teachers were on strike, down from last week’s day of protests. A third of French regions had scheduled school holidays.

Macron promised to press ahead with the changes despite opinion polls showing growing opposition. The bill would gradually raise the minimum retirement age to 64 by 2030 and accelerate a proposed measure that would require people to have worked for at least 43 years to be eligible for a full pension.

The government argues that the changes aim to keep the pension system financially afloat. France’s aging population is expected to push the system into deficit over the next decade.

The parliamentary debate in the National Assembly and Senate is expected to last several weeks.

Opposition lawmakers have proposed more than 20,000 amendments to the bill debated Monday, mostly by the left-wing Nupes coalition.

Philippe Martinez, general secretary of the powerful CGT union, urged the government and lawmakers to “listen to the people”. In a speech on French radio station RT, he denounced Macron’s stance as “playing with fire”.

Macron wants to show that “he is able to push through a reform, no matter what public opinion says, what the citizens think,” Martinez asserted.

CFDT union leader Laurent Berger also urged the government to “listen” to the crowds taking to the streets. “One can only react to social tensions with the exercise of democratic power,” he told the French newspaper “La Croix”.

Resentment over the pension plan extended beyond the heated debate in Parliament. The speaker of the lower house, the National Assembly, reported that the bill had sparked anonymous voicemails, graffiti and a threatening letter to the chair of the chamber’s social affairs committee.

“That’s enough,” Yael Braun-Pivet tweeted. “These acts are an attack on our democratic life. … We will not tolerate it.”

Several lawmakers from the far-right National Rally Party received voicemails during Monday’s debate saying loved ones were being hospitalized in an apparent ploy to get them to leave the gathering. The group’s leader, Marine Le Pen, said she would file a legal complaint.

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AP writer Elaine Ganley in Paris contributed.

Sylvie Corbet and Jade Le Deley, The Associated Press

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