Demonstration against pension reform plans in France
In France, protests against the planned pension reform took place again on Saturday. The police said they expect up to a million participants at the nationwide rallies.
In France, protests against the planned pension reform took place again on Saturday. The police said they were expecting a total of up to one million participants in the nationwide rallies against Head of State Emmanuel Macron’s central reform project. Marylise Leon from the CFDT union spoke on radio station Franceinfo of the “endgame” in the fight against pension reform. CFDT boss Laurent Berger demanded that France’s political leadership “stop denying this social movement”.
The protests are directed against the pension reform currently being debated in the Senate, which provides for an increase in the retirement age from 62 to 64 years. According to official figures, 1.28 million people across the country took to the streets against the plans on Tuesday, the last major day of protest so far. Unions have also called for indefinite strikes against the project in various sectors, including aviation, petrol stations and garbage collection.
Meanwhile, the passage of the reform is getting closer. On Thursday night, the Senate approved the main point of the reform, raising the retirement age from 62 to 64, by a vote of 201 to 115. Labor Minister Olivier Dussopt also used a constitutional article to speed up the debate in the Senate. The senators can no longer vote on individual articles of the pension reform, but only on the entire package. They continued their deliberations on Saturday morning.
The Senate has until midnight on Sunday for the debate. The text then goes to the mediation committee. The government is hoping for a final passage next Thursday, relying on the votes of conservative Republicans.
President Macron has been criticized for largely staying out of the pension reform debate. In a letter to the unions published on Thursday, he signaled a willingness to engage in dialogue, but without specifically responding to the unions’ repeated requests to meet with him.
HOME PAGE