Inter-city trains are likely to be only “slightly disrupted”, the SNCF railway company said, while the metro network in Paris will run a normal service. One-third of flights out of Paris-Orly airports have been cancelled, however.
“I’m not sure there’ll be other protests afterwards,” Jean-Claude Mailly, the former leader of the FO union said. “So it’s a way to mark the occasion.”
The unions, which have kept a rare united front during the whole pension episode, are holding the nationwide strike just two days before an opposition-sponsored bill aimed at cancelling the minimum pension age increase is reviewed by parliament.
The provision is expected to be rejected by the lower house’s speaker, a member of Macron’s party, because under the French constitution, lawmakers cannot pass legislation that weighs on public finances without measures to offset those costs.
But unions hope a big protest turnout could pressure lawmakers into reviewing the bill anyway and holding a vote. Opposition lawmakers, meanwhile, say the bill being rejected would revive public anger, branding any such move “anti-democratic”.
Macron, who says the reform is essential to plug a massive deficit, will be hoping that the approaching summer holidays and improving inflation numbers will help the public move on.
The president’s popularity has gained four points in a monthly Elabe poll in June and eight points in a YouGov poll, although it is still languishing around 30 per cent.