Protests continue in France against Macron’s pension reform

Thousands of people will once again occupy the streets of different cities in France to demonstrate against the pension reform of President Emmanuel Macron, on the ninth day of protests. The authorities expect that between 600,000 and 800,000 people will participate in the 300 demonstrations called throughout the country. For this reason, they have arranged the deployment of 12,000 agents, 5,000 of them in Paris.Last night, spontaneous protest marches took place again in different cities. And in some cases, they led to riots and clashes between protesters and security forces. The demonstrations will take place on a day of substantial extension of the strikes that have been developing more or less uninterruptedly in public transport, refineries, energy, garbage collection or education. The strike of air traffic controllers, in addition, has forced the early cancellation of 30% of flights at the Parisian airport of Orly and 20% in those of Marseille, Toulouse and Lyon.La controversial law that raises the retirement age to 64 years will be reviewed in the coming weeks by the Constitutional Council of France, in response to appeals lodged by opposition parties, and the President may promulgate it only after the body has given its approval. French President Emmanuel Macron gave an interview in which he defended his project, approved by decree, and trusted that it will enter into force before 2024. Do you think I like to do this reform? No,” said the president, in a report granted to the two main French television networks. According to official estimates, the pension fund will enter a deficit that will grow to 12.5 billion euros by 2030. The objective of this reform, they explain, is to achieve financial balance. However, Macron acknowledged the “unpopularity” of the measure and admitted that his main mistake was not having managed to “convince” the population that it was adequate. He also said he understands society’s anger at the profits of large companies and announced that he will ask the government to force them to “participate in the collective effort” of the nation through an “exceptional contribution.” Regarding the protests, the president observed: “You have to respect when they are peaceful but not when they resort to extreme violence.” In that line, he said that we must “listen to the anger,” but warned that “an overflow will not be tolerated.” He also took aim at unions, which drive protests across the country. “No union force has proposed compromises. They have told us they didn’t want any reform,” he said.

Original source in Spanish