French invited today to participate in the ninth day mobilizationwithin two months, against a highly unpopular pension reform that was passed without a vote in parliament the day after the TV interview Macron which provoked a reaction from trade unions and the opposition.

Trade unions called on opponents of the reform to take to the streets and strike for the ninth time since January 19 and for the first time at the national level since the bill was passed.

In an interview yesterday, after weeks of social unrest, Emmanuel Macron insisted that the reform should take effect before the end of the year, acknowledging its unpopularity.

“This reform is not a pleasure, not a luxury, but a necessity,” he said, citing the defense of the “general interest” in the face of financial drain on the insurance system and an aging population. .

The main measure of the reform is to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 years.

France is one of the few countries in Europe where the retirement age is so low.

Opponents of the reform call it “unfair”, especially for women and hard workers.

“There is before and after”

Today’s day of protests began with blockades of oil facilities, ports, highways, air transport, the gas sector and universities.

Nationwide, the fuel situation is getting slightly worse, with 14% of stations running short of at least one type of fuel and 7.13% completely empty, compared to 6% on Tuesday.

Currently, only one of the four TotalEnergies refineries is operating in France.

The supply of kerosene to the Paris region and its airports via Normandy “is at a critical level,” the Ministry of Energy Transition said today, as it is ready to mobilize strikers.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGAC) has asked airlines to cancel 30% of flights from Paris-Orly Airport and 20% from other airports for today.

The ports of Marseille and Brest are completely blocked by the decision of the trade union of the CGT.

Today, the French railway company SNCF cannot serve 50% of high-speed trains and a third of local express trains.

Paris metro traffic is expected to be “heavily disrupted”.

The strike of garbage workers, which began on March 6, has been extended until Monday.

Emmanuel Macron confirmed yesterday that he does not intend to dissolve parliament, reshuffle the government or call a referendum on reform. He said he wanted dialogue with the social partners to resume in a few days or weeks, when tensions subside.

The head of the CFDT trade union, Laurent Berger, replied that these were “empty words (…) at the moment there is a big social conflict, a crisis of democracy, a social crisis.”

Analysts believe that the reform and the negative reaction of the population will indelibly mark the second term of Emmanuel Macron.

“When the mobilizations are over, we cannot think that we will erase this kind of conflict. There are before and after, there is a dispute about the retirement age, ”admitted Labor Minister Olivier Desors to the RTL radio network. “But there are questions that allow the dialogue to be resumed.”

^{Source: APE-MEB, AFP.}