Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said on Friday he was sticking with plans to reform France’s pension system but insisted change would be gradual and “not brutal,” Reuters reports.

“I believe in social dialogue… I will never be in a logic of confrontation,” Edouard Philippe said. The statement came after unions called for a new day of strikes and demonstrations against the government’s pension reform plans on Tuesday.

Edouard Philippe is basically saying that you can’t throw a frog straight into boiling water because it will jump straight back out, but throw a frog into mild water and slowly bring it to a boil and the frog won’t notice it’s slowly being boiled alive.