Editorial - A walk in the woods instead of social dialogue

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We don't know how well the Prime Minister will sleep on the night before the major rally against government policy, but as cool as he appears on the outside ("it's a Saturday and it's quite possible that I'll go for a walk on that day, because I'm a great nature lover", said Luc Frieden at the last press briefing in response to a journalist's question about what he was doing on June 28th), he is certainly not that cool.

Of course, by going for a walk, he has added fuel to the already blazing fire of the trade unions. Whether consciously or unconsciously remains to be seen, but if it was unconscious, then he definitely has no political intuition, which was once also attested to by CSV father Jean-Claude Juncker. The latter is said to have predicted to the then Finance Minister Frieden in front of the assembled ministers that he would never understand anything about politics.

The fact that the president of the employers' organisation, Michel Reckinger, called on people in a radio interview this week not to take part in the large-scale demonstration and instead go for a walk in the forest with Luc Frieden is also unlikely to lead to a more objective discussion. On the contrary: the UEL president's statement is likely to have ensured that this is the case, and the numerous reactions on social media to Reckinger's appearance speak a clear language that people are saying "Now more than ever!" and will now definitely be at the demonstration in the capital on Saturday.

A foretaste of the large demonstration by the trade union front of OGBL and LCGB, for which the banking union Aleba, numerous non-governmental organisations and the majority of opposition parties have also mobilised their members, was given on Wednesday when the civil servants' union CGFP, supported by the municipal staff union FGFC and the Christian railway workers' union Syprolux, called for a first public service warning demonstration against the pension reform, in which around 300 people took part in front of the Chamber.

How many people will now be there on Saturday will of course influence the government's future course of action, as Luc Frieden will be looking closely at how many people actually take to the streets on that day after his supposed walk in the woods.