French protesters continued their demonstrations in an attempt to fight lawmakers' planned pension reform that would raise the age requirement by two years.
The protests have caused fuel deliveries to be blocked from all French refineries, said union officials, as they took to the streets once again. In a statement, Eric Sellini of the CGT union said that the strike had begun everywhere in the country.
French Protests Continue
Tuesday was the sixth day of protests and strikes since mid-January, and trade unions argued that the most recent one was the biggest yet. Authorities reported that most train and metro services were canceled due to the protests, and several schools were forced to close temporarily.
Police officials estimated roughly 1.1 million to 1.4 million attendees in the 260 protests that unions highlighted. The hardline CGT added that as many as 700,000 demonstrators went out in Paris alone, but official figures are expected to be far lower, as per BBC.
The protests continue as the French government shows no signs that it plans to back down from its proposed pension reform. Emmanuel Lepine, the leader of one union, last week said the objective of the protesters blocking fuel deliveries was to "bring the French economy to its knees."
As of the latest demonstrations, it was unclear how long the blockades of the refineries would last. Currently, eight refineries are located in mainland France, and the CGT argued that strikers had blocked the exits on all of the facilities, including those that TotalEnergies and Esso-ExxonMobil run.
Many expect to be called in the days ahead to extend the strikes to include power generation as well. For now, all of the noise and sporadic disruption that the protesters have caused have had little effect on the France economy, and the reform bill continues through parliament.
Opposition to Pension Reform
The demonstrations mark a critical time for labor and the government since French President Emmanuel Macron hoped that parliament would adopt his planned pension reform. According to Reuters, the country's hardline unions are planning to mount pressure on lawmakers by continuing strikes in the next few days.
In a statement, an FO union representative at the Donges refinery in western France, Marin Guillotin, said that the "real fight starts now." He added that the government has not listened to the protesters, who are now forced to use the only means they have left, which is the hard strike.
The government also noted that 10,000 more protesters turned out across the nation on Tuesday compared to the previous peak of 1.27 million seen on Jan. 31. Media and local officials added that there were bigger crowds at rallies in some cities, such as Marseille.
The French government's plan to raise the retirement age requirement has struck a deep nerve among its people, who cherish it and revere a great balance between life and work. The reasoning that lawmakers used to defend the planned reform is that the elderly generation was living longer and the younger generation, which pays for taxes, is not able to keep up, said the New York Times.