How will the political situation in France develop in the coming days against the backdrop of the adoption of the Pension Reform Law under Article 49.3 of the Constitution without a vote of representatives, will demonstrations and protests continue until the new law is withdrawn, or is President Emmanuel Macron sticking to it under the pretext that it is necessary? And does the House of Representatives uphold the constitutional provision to deal with this text, which is rejected by the unions?. Despite the failure of opposition parties last Monday to express no confidence in the Elizabeth Bourne government following the passage of the Pension Reform Act using Article 49.3 of the Constitution, this does not mean that the battle to repeal of this law, which raises the retirement age from 62 to 64 years, is over.
Trade unions and the political opposition held another day of protest on Thursday to put pressure on Emmanuel Macron to revoke the controversial law.
According to police, up to 800,000 people are expected to take to the streets of the country’s cities. And after French President Emmanuel Macron’s televised speech on Wednesday, which unions say “didn’t calm anything,” protests followed on Thursday, going as far as traffic and train disruptions and school closures, as well as workers unhappy with higher pensions. century, blocked the road to one of the terminals of Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris on Thursday, forcing some travelers to walk there, and a spokesman for the Paris Airports Company said flights were not affected.
Trains were disrupted, some schools were closed, trash piled up on the streets and electricity production was disrupted as unions stepped up pressure on the government to repeal a law that would raise the retirement age from two to 64.
Puffs of smoke were seen rising from piles of burning debris blocking traffic on a motorway near Toulouse in the country’s southwest, and strikes also temporarily closed roads in other cities. During TV interviews on TF1 and France 2, Macron suggested that the controversial reform would be “implemented by the end of the year”, seeing it as “necessary” in the midst of escalating social anger.
And the French President acknowledged his “failure to convince the people of the need for this reform”, echoing the arguments presented by his presidential camp, as the government passed the draft amendment to the pension system without a vote in parliament.
The interview, which lasted 35 minutes, angered the opposition and trade unions. Far-right leader Marine Le Pen said Macron was an “increasingly isolated man who consoled” the French with the thought of his “contempt” for them. Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the far-left France Proud, also denounced the “traditional signs of contempt” and “arrogance” of Macron, who “lives far from reality.”
“(Macron) completely denies it,” Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure told the National Assembly, adding: “I’m afraid he’s fanned a very big fire.” As the government passed the bill without a vote in parliament, protests continue across France and spontaneous demonstrations break out, sometimes punctuated by tensions with the police.
128 people were arrested in France Tuesday evening, bringing the number of arrests to almost a thousand since Thursday. On Wednesday, Amnesty International warned of “excessive use of force and arbitrary arrests” during the demonstrations, calling on the authorities to “ensure the safety of demonstrators.”
Amnesty International denounced the “arbitrary use of batons”, noting that “several media outlets have documented the heavy use of tear gas directly against peaceful demonstrators to disperse demonstrations without the possibility of systematic dispersal”, and added: “Following the 19 January mobilization events, one of the demonstrators had to be removed testicle after being beaten between the legs with a baton, although he did not pose any security threat.
The demonstrations represent the latest wave of protests and the biggest challenge to President Macron’s authority since the Yellow Vests movement four years ago, while opinion polls have shown a majority of French people oppose the pension law, as well as the government’s decision to take it under the dome. National Assembly (Parliament) without the right to vote.
