FRENCH TRADE unions mounted a show of strength yesterday when huge numbers turned out at hundreds of rallies to protest against the government’s pension reforms.
The CFDT union estimated that 2.5 million people took to the streets in more than 150 cities and towns across the country. The police estimate was lower, at 1.1 million, but both figures suggest a much bigger turnout than on a similar day of mobilisation in June.
Public transport, airports, schools, banks and postal services were severely disrupted throughout the day, with a number of Ryanair and Aer Lingus flights from Ireland to France cancelled. Officials said almost 30 per cent of teachers and 42 per cent of staff at the SNCF rail company went on strike, with France Telecom and electricity supplier EDF also affected.
The government’s proposals, which envisage raising the minimum retirement age to 62 from 60 by 2018, have provoked fierce opposition. François Chérèque, leader of the CFDT, said ministers would be ill-advised to ignore what he called “the biggest turnout in recent years”.
As protesters took to the streets, there were chaotic scenes in the National Assembly, where the debate on the pension reform Bill began yesterday. The session had to be temporarily adjourned after communist deputies left their seats and approached the government benches with petitions against the proposals.
In Paris, hundreds of thousands congregated at the Place de la République, which was reclaimed from the normal weekday traffic and turned into a colourful carnival in the sunshine. So big was the crowd that when the red flares went up and the march began, its head was already some distance away, at the Place de la Bastille. “Résistance, résistance!” yelled the contingent from the students’ union Unef.
Jean-Jacques Le Goff, a 58-year-old Parisian bank official, said he felt so strongly about the reform that he was joining a protest for the first time in 15 years. Only two out of about 20 staff members in his branch had gone on strike yesterday.
“My wife is a primary school teacher, and because she had to spend so long in education – and her three years off after we had our children – she’ll only have worked 34 years by the time she’s 60,” he said. “If she wants to have a good retirement, she’ll have to work till she’s 65 or 67.”
Mr Le Goff said he considered himself lucky, in that he can retire in 2013, but he was joining the march for the sake of his two children, aged 24 and 27.
In the sea of placards, the target of protesters’ ire was the same: President Nicolas Sarkozy. “Sarko. Retire at 56,” read one hand-made poster bobbing above the crowd.
Jennifer Buchle, a 20-year-old student collecting funds for Unef, shared the sentiment. “We’re angry,” she said firmly. “He promised so much and he hasn’t delivered anything. He does exactly the opposite of what people want.”
Pauline Bruyas (23), who is shortly to move to China to teach, was unsure about the power of the street. “I don’t think [it will have an effect], not on this, because their strategy is not to listen. Let’s say I have a faint hope.”
But didn’t Jacques Chirac back down in 1995? “Jacques Chirac was more moderate than the current government,” she replied.
The government says other Europeans are working longer and that France must follow suit, but few on the march were convinced.
“Just because your neighbour cuts off his finger doesn’t mean you should do the same thing,” remarked Dominique Hollande (56), a journalist from Picardy who was marching with the Force Ouvrière union.
Mr Hollande was made redundant by the newspaper Le Parisien three years ago and hasn’t worked since, he said. “People aren’t against reform but they’re against unjust reform,” he said.