France faces a “hellish Thursday” as workers opposing an unpopular pensions overhaul are set to go on strike, disrupting transportation and schooling across the country.
President Emmanuel Macron’s government has proposed raising the retirement age for most people to 64 from 62 and increase the years of contributions required for a full pension.
Following the news, France’s trade unions immediately called for a mass mobilisation. The last time a similar call was made was 12 years ago when the retirement age was hiked to 62 from 60.
Most trains will be cancelled, with flights also affected and Paris’ subway heavily disrupted.
Only one in three to one in five high-speed TGV lines will operate, and only one in ten local TER trains, the SNCF train operator said.
Transport Minister Clement Beaune has warned of “a hellish Thursday”, urging people to work from home.
However, international traffic on the Eurostar and Thalys lines is set to be nearly normal, while the Lyria connection with Switzerland will face major disruptions and other international train connections will be entirely cancelled.
Around 70 per cent of primary school teachers are also expected to strike, with several schools being closed entirely for the day, according to the main teachers’ union.
The industrial action will test whether unions, who in past years have struggled to convince people to strike, can transform this anger into mass social protest.
France’s hardline CGT union has threatened to cut off electricity supplies to lawmakers and billionaires.
“I suggest they also go see the nice properties, the nice castles of billionaires,” Philippe Martinez, leader of the CGT, France’s second-largest trade union, told France 2 television on Wednesday.
“It would be good if we cut off their electricity so that they can put themselves, for a few days, in the shoes of … French people who can’t afford to pay their bill.”
Sebastien Menesplier, of the CGT’s energy and mine branch, has even threatened to cut electricity in the offices of MPs, as per local media reports.
Martinez further said he hoped for “lots of people in the street and lots of people on strike”.
He also said that he expects many in the private sector to join public-sector workers in the strikes. He believes “in certain big companies, striker rates that should hover around 60, 70 per cent”.
The unions expect over a million demonstrators in more than 200 cities across France.
According to the French media, the police are preparing to handle 550,000 to 750,000 protesters, including 50,000 to 80,000 in Paris.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said Wednesday that 10,000 police and gendarmes will be working to counter the protesters, including more than a third of them in the capital. He told RTL radio that they expect some 1,000 demonstrators to turn “violent”, saying they were from the radical left or past Yellow Vest movement.
