May 1 is a new day against pension reform in France

Paris

The question with 300 demonstrations across the country, which centrists hope will mobilize hundreds of thousands of people, perhaps even more than a million, is what form the protest will take from now on, and whether it will materialize. union unity in recent months.

Above all because the French Prime Minister, Elisabeth Bourne, has already advanced that she will invite them to meet in the coming days to discuss not pension reform, which should begin to be applied in a practical way from September, but other issues to try. To turn the page on the social crisis.

In addition to the scale of the demonstrations, another aspect that will get a lot of attention today is the feared rioting, as the intelligence services believe that several thousand radicals may try to mingle at union rallies, as has happened in many of the 12 days of mobilization since the movement began in January.

12,000 agents spread all over the country

The Interior Ministry planned to deploy 12,000 agents across France, including 5,000 in Paris, where the rally takes place from early afternoon between Place de la Republique and Place de la Nation.

Union leaders plan to meet on Tuesday morning to decide how to continue the fight against French President Emmanuel Macron’s reforms that would raise the minimum retirement age from 62 to the current 64.

Several of them, notably the Secretary General of the French Democratic Confederation of Labor (CFDT, the first federation in the country), Laurent Berger, have already said that, contrary to the refusal they gave the government three weeks ago, they are willing to do so. Discuss other business issues, but with some conditions.

This May 1 goes hand in hand with some strikes that will be particularly noticeable at airports with the strike of air traffic controllers forcing companies operating in France’s nine largest airports, including two in Paris, to cancel between a quarter and a third of flights.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGAC) asked them to cancel 33% of operations at Paris’s Orly airport, as well as those of Marseille, Lyon, Bordeaux, Nantes and Toulouse.

In addition, they have to cancel 25% of flights in Charles de Gaulle, as well as in Paris, which is the busiest airport in France, as well as in Nice and Beauvais (outside Paris).