Empty forecourts and platforms on the Gare de l’Est railway station in Paris, on March 7, 2023, as fresh strikes and protests are planned against the federal government’s controversial pensions reform.
Christophe Archambault | Afp | Getty Images
Strike motion over plans to lift the pension age in France caused widespread disruption on Tuesday, as trains got here to a near-standstill, many faculties were shut and fuel deliveries were blocked from refineries.
State railway operator SNCF warned passengers to cancel or postpone trips, if possible, while Eurostar advised ticket holders to ascertain whether their train is running. Most metro services are also canceled, as are some flights from Paris’s Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports.
Unions are calling on French President Emmanuel Macron to scrap his plan to lift the retirement age from 62 to 64 and require employees to contribute into France’s shared pension fund for 43 years before receiving a full pension.
Macron has for years been trying to reform the pension system, which has a projected annual deficit of 10 billion euros ($10.73 billion) annually between 2022 and 2032, in accordance with France’s Pensions Advisory Council. The move is fiercely opposed by much of the general public.
Greater than 1,000,000 people marched across the country in late January to oppose the plans. Union reps aim to get two million people onto the streets on Tuesday.
Unionists gather ahead of a strike vote on the Exxon-Mobil Port Jerome Gravenchon refinery, in Port-Jerome-sur-Seine, near Le Havre, northwestern France, on March 7, 2023.
Lou Benoist | Afp | Getty Images
Eric Sellini, a representative from the CGT union at TotalEnergies, told Reuters that a strike blocking the Gonfreville refinery in Normandy would run until Thursday. One other on the Donges refinery in western France is ready to run until Friday, he added.
The blockages could cause a petroleum shortage by the tip of the week, head of French supermarket group Les Mousquetaires Thierry Cotillard said.
“Let’s bring France to a halt!” a coalition of unions said in a statement, branding the reforms “unacceptable and useless.”
Police protest outside the police station of Roubaix, northern France on March 7, 2023, on the sixth day of nationwide rallies organized because the start of the yr.
Sameer Al-doumy | Afp | Getty Images
The strikes come as French employees grapple with red-hot inflation, which accelerated unexpectedly in February to hit 6.2% year-on-year.
Around two thirds of the general public support protests against the pension reforms, in accordance with an Elabe survey.
But with the number of individuals taking to the streets dipping in February, several unions have called for rolling, open-ended strikes to voice their opposition.
Macron will seek to pass his plan in parliament by the tip of next month, but could also resort to using special constitutional powers to push them through. The latter move would risk triggering a vote of no confidence and recent parliamentary elections, which he may gamble he can avoid.
Macron’s Renaissance party — formerly La République En Marche! — doesn’t have an absolute majority in parliament, but is supported within the reforms by some members of the conservative Les Republicains.
Renaud Foucart, senior lecturer in Economics at Lancaster University, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” that he believed Macron had a significantly better probability of passing the law then he did when he suggested a more complex set of reforms 4 years ago.
“This reform is important,” Alexandre Holroyd of the Renaissance political party told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” last month, citing the extent of the projected deficit and the rise in life expectancy.
“It is a difficult reform. Listen, we’re asking people to work more. We understand that that is difficult, however the responsible thing to do here is balance the books and make certain this great pension system that we have now can survive for the following 40 years prefer it has for the last 40 years.”
