The Government of France, harassed on the street for its pension reform two days away from the final vote on his bill, he tries to use the garbage collection strike, which affects a part of the city of Paris in particular, to attack the opposition, which he accuses of irresponsibility.
“It is not the garbage strike that poses problems for me, but it is Anne Hidalgo herself (the socialist mayor of Paris) who goes on strike. She does nothing, and when there is a situation like this, you cannot not do it nothing”, denounced this Tuesday the Minister of Transportation, Clement Beaune.
In an interview with the France 2 channel, Beaune, who is one of the candidates to win Hidalgo’s mayorship in the next municipal elections, insisted that when one is “responsible for a big city, particularly the capital, there is a responsibility to Act”.
The garbage collection stoppages, which have been going on uninterrupted since the beginning of last week in 10 of the 20 districts of Paris, have given rise to the accumulation of 5,600 tons of waste, according to figures given by the City Council on Monday.
“Parisians see nothing more than this and speak nothing more than this,” stressed the Minister of Transport, who noted the action of some district mayors who are not of the same political color as Hidalgo, and who have taken measures to avoid that mountains of garbage are formed.
In this regard, he suggested that “exceptionally” the collection services that operate in some districts could be shared because those services are there subcontracted to private companies that are not on strike.
Regarding the possibility of forcing strikers to return to work for health reasons, Beaune indicated that this is a municipal competence and that his government could only do so “as a last resort.”
Hidalgo has not wanted to intervene directly in this controversy for now and has left his councilor responsible for cleaning, Colombé Brossel, respond to the accusations.
“If the government pension reform that pushes the minimum retirement age to 64 is withdrawn immediately, incinerators and (cleaning vehicle) garages will be unlocked immediately,” Brossel said.
The problem is not limited to garbage collection, but there is pickets blocking access to the three waste incinerators of the Paris metropolitan area in Issy les Moulineaux, Ivry sur Seine and Saint Ouen.
And apart from the capital, strikes of these services also exist in other cities of the country such as Nantes, Le Havre or Saint Brieuc.
The protest against the pension reform is also translated into strikes in other sectors such as public transport and energy albeit with a relatively limited impact on everyday life.
This Wednesday will be new day of mobilization called by all the unions, with demonstrations throughout the country coinciding with the examination, by a joint mixed commission of deputies and senators, of the text of the bill.
That should be the penultimate step before the two parliamentary chambers vote separately on Thursday, a vote for which Macron is not yet guaranteed a majority.
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