France strikes again against pension reform

In France, on January 31, the second nationwide strike this year (the first was on January 19) took place, organized by the country’s largest trade unions in protest against the increase in the retirement age from 62 to 64 by 2030. The strike affected power plants, oil refining, public transport, including regional and long-distance high-speed trains, metro, buses, as well as the education system.

On January 31, from 75% (in Normandy) to 100% (in Flanders) of the personnel were on strike at the refineries and fuel depots of TotalEnergies. The nuclear power plants of the monopolist Électricité de France have been cut by 3,000 MW, equivalent to about three units. According to the state railway monopoly SNCF, on January 31, the operation of regional trains TER and Transilien, as well as high-speed interregional TGVs, was “seriously disrupted”. Night trains were completely canceled on 31 January and 1 February. In total, at 15.00 Moscow time on January 31, about 1.12 million people were on strike and protested in France, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. French trade unions had previously expected to gather 2 million strikers and demonstrators following the results of the actions on January 31. This number was reached during the actions on January 19.