PARIS (MNI) – The French government’s pension reform bill will
remain on the normal trajectory toward parliamentary ratification after
a second day of mass protests and strikes this month, government
spokesman Luc Chatel confirmed Friday.
“Let us continue the classical path in parliament,” Chatel demanded
in a radio interview.
According to government estimates, turnout at Thursday’s marches
and rallies — considered by the protest leaders as a litmus test for
the strength of public opposition — was slightly less than one million,
compared to somewhat more than a million on September 7.
The CGT trade union, by contrast, calculated an impressive rise to
three million demonstrators from its estimate of two million two weeks
earlier.
“The issue is not necessarily to know whether there were 100,000 or
200,000 fewer people in the streets,” Chatel argued. “We have indicators
that let us think there was rather a decline.”
The share of civil servants in schools and public firms who went on
strike Thursday declined to 21% from 26% on September 7, the spokesman
said.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that a number of employees preferred to
take a day of vacation to participate in the protests rather than go on
strike and lose another day’s pay.
The reform bill, which would raise the retirement age by two years
in order to eliminate the rising deficit in the pay-as-you-go pension
system by 2018, has already been ratified by the National Assembly.
Chatel argued that “some real progress” was made by lawmakers’
amendments for employees with work disabilities and those who started
work at an early age.
Thursday’s protests showed that “there were still a number of
questions and worries,” he acknowledged. “The government must continue
to respond to them. And that will be the issue of the debate in the
Senate that starts next week.”
–Paris newsroom +331 4271 5540; Email: stephen@marketnews.com
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