French President Emmanuel Macron called government ministers to a crisis meeting on Monday, as tensions rose a day ahead of strikes and other protests against pension reforms.
Nearly two weeks after Macron rammed the new law through parliament using a special provision that bypassed any vote, unions vowed not to let up in mass protests for the government’s resignation.
Read also: French Macron: defiant but weakened after retirement debacle
They called for another day of action on Tuesday, the 10th mobilization since protests began in mid-January against the controversial law, which raises the retirement age to 64 from 62.
Macron, whose approval rating in opinion polls is at a low point, said last week that he accepts the “unpopularity” that comes with the reforms.
Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, meanwhile, said that while there were no plans to drop the law, she was ready for a new dialogue with the unions.
“We have to find the right path… We have to calm down,” he told AFP in an interview on Sunday.
Starting Monday, Borne has scheduled discussions for three weeks, including with members of parliament, political parties, local authorities and trade unions.
A state visit to France by Britain’s King Charles III, which was due to start on Sunday, was delayed due to the unrest.
Macron meeting
Instead of hosting King Charles for a day of luxury and ceremony, Macron instead met with Borne, other cabinet ministers and senior lawmakers to discuss the crisis at the Elysee Palace, the president said.
Borne presented the consultation plan to the president at a meeting on Monday and is then expected to take it to allies and members of Macron’s cabinet, presidential sources said.
If the union accepts his offer to negotiate, Borne is expected to put new measures on the table designed to ease the impact of pension laws aimed at physically demanding jobs, conditions for older workers and retraining.
Also read: Macron vs unions: What’s at stake for France?
But the initial reaction was not promising for the prime minister.
Laurent Berger, head of the moderate CFDT union, which has taken an unexpectedly hard line against pension reform, said he would accept the offer to negotiate but only if the reform was first “put to one side”.
Berger called on the government to make “very big steps on pensions”.
Left-wing firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon said on Sunday that there was a “very easy way” to return to peaceful relations, and that was to “repeal the law”.
The protest movement against pension reforms has become the biggest domestic crisis of Macron’s second term, with police and protesters clashing regularly in Paris and other cities since the reforms were forced through.
– ‘Very annoying’ –
Last Thursday, the day before the main protests, police reported 457 arrests in France and injuries to 441 police officers.
Government spokesman Olivier Veran called Melenchon and his party “instigators of anger”, while Green Party MP Sandrine Rousseau accused Macron and Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin of stoking the unrest.
According to Paris mass transit operator RATP, metro and suburban trains will be “extremely disrupted” on Tuesday.
Garbage collectors in the capital went on strike, with around 8,000 tonnes of rubbish on the streets on Sunday.
Adding to the blockade of waste treatment, workers at an incineration plant outside Paris stopped work on Monday.
France’s civil aviation authority told airlines at Orly airport in Paris, as well as Marseille, Bordeaux and Toulouse airports, to cancel 20 percent of flights for Tuesday and Wednesday.
About 15 percent of service stations in France are short of gasoline because we have a refinery strike, while workers at a nuclear power plant in southwestern France stopped the rector and limited access for crews.
The Louvre in Paris, the world’s most visited museum, was closed on Monday due to labor strikes.
Also read: ‘We have to work longer’: France’s Macron defends pension reform
About a third of elementary school teachers are expected to go on strike on Tuesday.
French police have also been criticized for heavy-handed tactics during recent demonstrations.
The Council of Europe said on Friday that peaceful protesters and journalists should be protected from police violence and arbitrary arrests.
On Sunday, the IGPN, the internal affairs unit of the French police, said it had launched 17 investigations into incidents since the protests began.