The poll by the Elabe institute for the BFM TV channel ratifies the population’s approval of the public demand of the country’s eight major union organizations, which announced that they will escalate their actions against the Executive’s decision to go ahead with the project.

According to the opinion study, the rejection of the reform that the National Assembly is debating these days is 65 percent among the active, while among the workers and employees it rises to 72 percent. On March 7, the unions hope to paralyze the country, in a general strike that they would decide on a daily basis whether to maintain it or not on the following day, unless the government backs down and accepts a dialogue.

As part of their pressure, the unions staged massive marches on January 19 and 31 and February 7 and 11, with new mobilizations called for today.

From the ruling party they assure that they understand the message of protesters in the streets, but at the same time they insist that the reform is essential to avoid an unsustainable financial deficit in the retirement system.

At the center of the controversy are proposals such as the extension of the retirement age, the increase to 43 years of the contribution period to aspire to pensions starting at 1,200 euros per month, and the elimination of special regimes.

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