French protesters stage more strikes over pension changes

PARIS (AP) – Public transport, schools and electricity, oil and gas supplies have been disrupted in France as tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets on Tuesday for a third round of nationwide strikes and protests against the government’s pension reform plans.

The demonstrations came a day after French lawmakers began debating a pension bill 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 of people demonstrated in the cities of Nice, Marseille, Toulouse and Nantes, as well as elsewhere across the country. An afternoon protest was to take place in Paris.

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 strikes, which he described as “tiring”. “There are other ways to protest the pension reform,” he said.

Kadiui supports the principle of pension reform but wants 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 resistance. The bill would gradually raise the minimum retirement age from 62 to 64 by 2030, accelerating a proposed measure that would, among other things, 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 slide into deficit in the system over the next decade.

The 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 is, what the citizens think,” Martinez asserted.

CFDT union leader Laurent Berger also urged the government to “listen” to the crowds taking to the streets. “You 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 House of Commons, the National Assembly, reported the bill, which 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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