The chaos, demonstrations, and general unrest continue to plague France since the passage of the pension reform bill. The country is descending into complete disorder as groups from the far Left have maintained a climate of anarchy.
The legislative process is now complete and the law, which had been hotly debated and contested for many weeks, has been passed. However, it has not yet been promulgated by the President of the Republic, as required by the law. It is currently being examined by the Constitutional Council, which has until April 14th to challenge or validate its provisions.
Until then, the demonstrations against the bill have not weakened, and have become increasingly dominated by the most radical elements, grouped under the banner of ultra-left, Antifa, or Black bloc, whose aims go beyond the simple withdrawal of the pension law. Their ultimate goal is to maintain revolutionary-type unrest.
In the meantime, another cause for mobilisation has been added to the subject of pensions, namely, the environment. The controversy involves the installation on the site of Sainte-Soline, in the department of Deux-Sèvres, of a device for water retention by means of ‘megabasins’ installed to help the farmers. Since Saturday, March 25th, environmentalists and far-left activists have gathered on the site to protest against what they consider a “grab” or “privatization” of water for the benefit of large farming conglomerates. The violence at the site resulted in many serious injuries to both the police and the protesters.
Activists criticised the violence deployed against them. The ministry of the interior responded by calling for the dissolution of an extremist environmentalist collective called Earth Uprisings (Les Soulèvements de la Terre). Two demonstrators were in critical condition and had to be placed in a coma. Their families have lodged complaints because the emergency services and firemen were not given access to the scene to assist them. Authorities say access was denied for security reasons.
The particularly unhealthy climate in France is now of international interest. The Council of Europe has sounded the alarm and expressed concern about the excessive use of force against the demonstrators challenging the pension reform. The events in Sainte-Soline only reinforced this observation.
President Emmanuel Macron met with Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne in a private working meeting on Monday, March 27th. Few details have filtered out about the results of this meeting. Elisabeth Borne has tried to appease critics, without effect. For example, she declared that she no longer wanted to use Article 49.3 in the future, except for votes on the budget.
On Tuesday, March 28th, a new day of strike action showed signs that the movement may be running out of steam. For employees, the accumulation of strike days is beginning to have a financial cost that not everyone can bear. The number of strikers per sector was clearly down. However, the social situation is still far from returning to normal. The garbage collectors’ strike is coming to an end in Paris, but a fuel shortage is spreading throughout the country. The Ile-de-France region is now seriously affected. No one is quite sure of what’s next.
