Anger after pension increase grows – protests and reforms announced

Anger is growing: France’s government has rushed through the controversial pension reform, fueling the anger of opponents of the project again. The trade unions have called for a big day of protests on May 1st. Actions are also planned for April 20th. President Emmanuel Macron wants to try to calm things down in a televised speech on Monday. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne announced further reforms.

The law raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 was published in the Official Gazette early on Saturday morning, putting it into effect just hours after it was approved by the Constitutional Council. Protests broke out again in Paris, Nice, Nantes, Rennes and other cities after the decision of the Constitutional Council. In the capital Paris alone, over 100 demonstrators were arrested on Friday evening.

Hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets against the pension reform in recent months. This is intended to prevent an impending hole in the pension fund. The retirement age in France is currently 62. In fact, retirement begins later on average today: those who have not paid in long enough to receive a full pension work longer. At the age of 67 there is a pension without a deduction, regardless of how long it has been paid in – the government is keeping that.

Macron would have had fourteen days to sign the law. Unions asked him again on Friday evening not to enact it. It should now take effect from September.

“Like thieves, Emmanuel Macron and his gang enacted their pension law in the middle of the night,” tweeted left-wing MP François Ruffin. Marine Le Pen from the right-wing national Rassemblement National (RN) party wrote on Twitter that a president must bring the French people together. But Macron is an “arsonist” who damages democracy. Le Pen, who is on the rise with the retirement age dispute, called for the government and Macron to be punished in the next elections. She wants to roll back the reform should she come to power.

In an interview published in the newspaper “Le Parisien” on Sunday, the moderate union boss Laurent Berger said that by nightly enshrining the law, Macron had fully expressed his contempt for the world of work and his detachment from reality. The unions have now called for an “extraordinary and popular mobilization day” for May 1st. On April 20, the French railways SNCF are to have a “day of expression of railroad anger” – one day before the start of the school holidays in the Paris and Occitania regions.

“The fight goes on and we have to join forces,” said left-wing politician Jean-Luc Mélenchon. The Socialists announced a motion to repeal the law. “I appeal to the President: he must hear the overwhelming majority, which is opposed to this reform, which is dividing the country, across France,” said Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo.

In a televised speech on Monday, Macron wants to try to calm things down. He would speak in a “logic of appeasement” in order to take stock of the three-month crisis, as government spokesman Olivier Véran told the television channel “TF1” on Saturday.

Irrespective of the protests against raising the retirement age, Prime Minister Borne wants to push through further reforms. One wants to build a France of full employment, guarantee equal opportunities, act for health and education, Borne said on Saturday during a meeting of the Renaissance presidential party in Paris. (sda/dpa)

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