The French unions are currently maintaining unity of action and have called another day of mobilization, on June 6, against the pension reform and the consequent delay of two years in the legal retirement age.
Trade union cohesion was not taken for granted after a May Day, Monday, very vindictive, but which did not bring a wave of people to the streets against the policy of the French Government. The nuances of more or less pragmatism between the various union organizations are left aside for now. They are not ready to capitulate.
The 6th of June will be the fourteenth protest since the beginning of the year and will take place two days before the vote in the National Assembly on a bill proposed by the varied group Libertats, Independents, Ultramar i Territories (Liot), to cancel the pension reform that Macron has just enacted.
Yesterday was a day of analysis and damage assessment. The riots in which some demonstrations degenerated, due to the presence of black blocs (radical anarchists and anti-system) were more serious than usual, with destruction of businesses, looting and fires. According to the Ministry of the Interior, there were 406 police officers injured – including one with serious burns caused by a Molotov cocktail in Paris – and 504 arrests. The Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, condemned the violence in harsh terms during the parliamentary session of questions to the Government and also warned that “social progress will not come from pots”.
The Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, denounced the “complicit silence” of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leader of the Insubmissive France (radical left) in the wake of the violence, and the latter accused the former of being “100% responsible” for what had happened. “The police must be suspicious of such an unfortunate boss,” tweeted Mélenchon.
Associations of traders and restaurateurs in the center of the big cities are exasperated by the losses they suffer from such frequent riots, not only because of the destruction, but because the fear of the riots drives customers away. Some, such as Thierry Fontaine, spokesman for the restaurateurs of Lyon, have asked that areas without shops be designated for the demonstrations, something that is difficult to achieve in practice.
In France, an atmosphere of institutional crisis and ungovernability reigns, due to the absence of a parliamentary majority to support the Government and the impossibility of building consensus, a situation that is complicated because the radical left and extreme right have grown a lot in representation and are looking for permanent support. According to historian Pierre Rosanvallon, this is the worst crisis since the Algerian war (1954-1962).
The downgrading of the credit rating for France announced on Friday by the Fitch agency has had a psychological and political impact. The news will provide ammunition to the Government’s rivals. Fitch downgraded the note, among other reasons, for “political impasse and social movements (sometimes violent)”. The fear is that Standard
Speaking to Le Figaro, yesterday, the president of Els Republicans (LR, traditional right), Éric Ciotti, warned that “France is dancing on a volcano” and is immersed in “an infernal spiral” due to the unstoppable growth of debt and the growing gap with Germany, the country of reference.
