Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators took part in nationwide union-led protests in France on Tuesday against the government’s proposed reform of the pension system, while strike action disrupted many sectors including transport, education institutions, postal services and power supplies. Meanwhile, the government suffered a severe blow in its showdown with the unions after the forced resignation on Monday of the man regarded as the architect of the reforms, the High Commissioner for Pensions Jean-Paul Delevoye, for having failed to register as required by law ten of his present or recent outside professional activities. Now Mediapart can reveal yet another: his membership until 2017 of the London-based Brazzaville Foundation, which is in effect a propaganda arm for the strongman president of the Republic of the Congo.
Caught in spiralling revelations over his so-called “oversights” in failing to officially declare his many outside professional interests, the French government’s pension reforms tsar Jean-Paul Delevoye finally resigned his post of High Commissioner for Pensions on Monday, just as union-led opposition to the reforms enters a crucial week of further talks and protests, with another day of strikes and demonstrations held across the country on Tuesday.
