Today the head of France's largest union, the "moderate" CFDT, gave Macron a very obvious out: remove the 2-year back-door hike to the retirement age and his union will accept the radical new "points" pension system. Very unfortunate he did this".
How greedy is Macron? Sarkozy already raised the retirement age by two years just nine years ago.
The unions have signed off on every major austerity reform, after all - they get a "good deal" for their members and the rest of the country can take a long walk off a short pier. Will the general strike be different? If Macron will make this deal offered by the CFDT the general strike will likely collapse. Macron has never compromised so far, unlike Hollande, but I will be surprised if doesn't take what he can get here and run: how many years like this can France take?
Dec 17 - Day 13 shocker: Macron's pension minister quits over corruption
LOL, you can't make this stuff up. This was the night prior to the 3rd million-person march against the pension scheme.
The architect of the reform admitted to receiving huge salaries from private groups even after taking public office. French media detailed more than a dozen conflicts of interest between these jobs and his public post.
He quit to try and save the reform. Common sense dictates that his plan is obviously the fruit of a corrupt mind/worldview" but no chance it'll be withdrawn by Macron.
I asked a Vester their thoughts: "His resignation gives us hope that even more ministers will soon join him! What he did was extraordinarily shameful. How can we possibly allow his ideas to govern something which affects the whole country?"
Macron has now set the record for minister resignations - nearly all due to corruption allegations - only halfway through his term.
Dec 20 - France Telecom found guilty over provoking mass worker suicides
Telecom company Orange guilty of the same charge, and was fined à ? ¬75,000, the maximum. Corporate logic: what's a à ? ¬75k fine if we can make workers life so miserable they quit and we can get them off the books? All it takes is years of daily, methodical, heartless harassment. The suicides were in the 2000s, but France's wheels of justice work slow.
Conversely, on December 16 a Yellow Vest was fined à ? ¬72,519, plus one year in jail, for degrading the statue of a French general at Place d'Italie on November 16, the Yellow Vest's birthday. "I saw red - I cracked up. The meltdown lasted 10 minutes," he testified.
Quite a contrasting story, motive, and punishment for him and France Telecom & Orange, eh?
Dec 21 - No Xmas vacation for France's Yellow Vests once again
Yellow Vests march instead of going vacation for the 2nd time. They continue to put the nation first.
This was also Macron's birthday - he is a Yalda baby. Yalda is a pre-Islamic holiday celebrated in Iran which marks the darkest, coldest night of the year - the winter solstice.
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