In France, the nationwide strike continues as protesters crowds city Centers, Tram way, and major streets, demanding for fair retirement and pension policy by the Emmanuel Macron lead administration. So far the French President has refuse to stand down on his reform agendas.
Protesters are with high hopes that the administration will heed to their demand eventually.
Emmanuel Macron who was expected to have address the crisis of his pension reforms in his New Year message didn’t seem to have done as a nationwide strike threatens to become the longest in French history.
The president’s annual televised remarks are likely to indicate how he intends to tackle widespread transport stoppages in protest at his plan to merge 42 public pension schemes into a single, points-based system.
Fewer than half of national carrier like SNCF’s services are not running and many Paris metro lines and Bordeaux among other cities remained shut down on as the strike entered its 26th consecutive day.
The strike is now the second-longest in French history and is on course to surpass the longest, which lasted for 28 days in the winter of 1986/87.
However, Macron has been silent on the crisis except for a plea to unions for a truce that is being ignored.
However, the union’s chief, Philippe Martinez, accused the government of trying to ensure the conflict deteriorated further.
“Emmanuel Macron presents himself as a man of a new world but he is imitating Margaret Thatcher,” he said. “There is real anger. Of course, not being paid for 24 days is tough. But the conflict is the result of two-and-a-half years of suffering.”
He said he expected Macron to offer some kind of conciliation in his address on Tuesday evening, as well as recognition that “most people are not happy and that he was wrong.”
