The missive elicited loud laughter from the unions we interviewed. Tuesday, May 2, the heads of small and medium-sized enterprises in the Paris region issued a press release to propose, among other things, that the events be organized no longer in the center of Paris but... on the device.

Deploring "unacceptable urban violence" on May 1, Bernard Cohen-Hadad, president of the CPME Paris, an employers' organization dedicated to VSE-SMEs, proposed that the demonstrations could "take place symbolically in the immediate vicinity of Paris, but in areas less dense with shops and housing: why not on the ring road, which would be closed for the occasion and dedicated to the demonstration, thus offering exceptional visibility at lower security risk? »

The proposal, very serious, was renewed on France Bleu and BFM, where Bernard Cohen-Hadad claims to have written on this subject to the Minister of the Interior, the Prefect of Police and the City of Paris, asking that the demonstrations take place in areas "without housing, without shops, without cars". The president acknowledges, however, that it is a little "pepper" to be able to "dialogue together".

"Our vocation is to make ourselves heard"

The idea was greeted with a loud laugh by Jean-Luc Hacquart, one of the leaders of URIF-CGT, the regional union that brings together all CGT activities in Île-de-France. "We could also demonstrate in Seine-et-Marne, there are large fields, we would not risk setting fire to a garbage can," jokes the unionist. "I am waiting for the Medef to propose to organize demonstrations on the slopes of Roissy. Like what the bosses of TEP and SMEs are also concerned by the pension reform, "he says, before leaving with a big laugh. More seriously, the manager "does not plan to negotiate a course on the periphery".

Why is this proposal very unlikely to ever be supported by the trade unions? Because they want to demonstrate "near the places of power and decision-making," says Laurent Pagnier, another Urif-CGT official. "Republic, Bastille, Nation is the historic route of the Parisian demonstrations," adds the trade unionist. Our vocation is to make ourselves heard. And why not in the desert? »



"I don't agree with this proposal, it's an attack on freedom. We will park demonstrators in places where we can no longer hear them. It is the role of the police to better supervise to avoid excesses, "also answered Brahim Ben Ali, head of a union of VTC drivers. "We can understand the CPME but we see that they should not know what a demonstration is," said the departmental union Force Ouvrière de Paris. Who still finds it very "fun".

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  • Pension reform 2023
  • May 1