Macron hopes train strikes will end soon
The French government is hoping the strikes against its pension reform plans may be starting to wind down as President Emmanuel Macron prepared, then gave, his traditional New Year’s address.
Metro and railway services around Paris slightly improved Tuesday, the 27th straight day of action, though trains were still disrupted outside rush hours. That suggests that an end of the protests — albeit a gradual one — may be in sight, one official said.
Mr. Macron, who had said little about the backlash against his efforts to streamline the public pension system, spoke on French TV at 8 p.m. and insisted that he was not going to give up on the pension overhaul.
Mr. Macron hinted at potential changes to his plan in order to get the striking workers back to work, and he urged his prime minister to find “a path of rapid compromise, while respecting the principles I have mentioned.”
Tensions ran high ahead of the speech as the protests evoked memories of the strikes that derailed earlier efforts at reform. The industrial action has already run on longer than the 1995 demonstrations, which thwarted plans to change the state system for retirement and health care.
The risk for Mr. Macron is that the labor movement helps revive the yellow vest protests that spread violence across France a year ago. Their combined efforts could multiply the disruption to the economy and force him to back down.
Unions oppose the pension-system overhaul, which aims to merge 42 separate regimes into a single points-based system and offers incentives to raise the age for full retirement benefits to 64 from 62. Workers’ leaders are aiming to rev up the demonstrations again once the holidays end.
8 taken from Greek ship
Five Greeks, two Filipinos and a Ukrainian were abducted by unidentified assailants from the Greekflagged tanker “Happy Lady” while it was anchored 2 nautical miles from Limboh port in Cameroon.
The attack on the 28 crew-member ship took place early Tuesday, the Greek Shipping Ministry said in a statement. The Happy Lady has a carrying capacity of 51,390 tons and is owned by Athens-based Eastern Mediterranean Maritime, according to Bloomberg.
“We’re doing everything needed for them to be released and returned home,” Greek Shipping Minister Yannis Plakiotakis said in a social media post.
A sixth Greek sailor was injured in the attack. Pirates abducted four crew members in November from another Greekflagged oil tanker while the vessel was docked in the port of Lome in Togo.
Picasso work damaged
A 20-year-old man is being held in custody pending his next court hearing after being charged with damaging a Picasso painting at the Tate Modern gallery in London.
London police said Tuesday that Shakeel Ryan Massey of northwest London has been charged with criminal damage. He appeared at Camberwell Green Magistrates’ Court on Monday.
Police said the attack happened Saturday. They did not specify the painting, but British media said it was “Bust Of A Woman.”