The French Constitutional Council has given the green light to the essential provisions of the pension reform, in particular the most contested article, the one which increases the retirement age from 62 to 64 years. The “wise men” also rejected the request of 250 French opposition MPs to hold a shared initiative referendum on pension reform. In Paris, the protest against the reform has reassembled, with clashes, smoke bombs and electric bikes set on fire.
the French president, Emmanuel Macron, will promulgate the pension reform within 48 hours: this is what BFMTV reports after the go-ahead from the Constitutional Council.
The government “takes note of the decision of the Constitutional Council”, “with this reform, our pension system will be in balance in 2030“: reads it in a press release from the French government, which underlines that “out of the 36 articles of the bill, 30 have been fully validated, 2 partially and 4 considered as ‘social knights’, i.e. not to be included in a law financing of social security”. This is what can be read in a statement from the services of the prime minister, Elisabeth Borne.
THE REACTIONS
French unions appeal to Macron lest he promulgate the law. The social partners will not accept meetings with the executive before May 1st.
Mélenchon: ‘The fight over pensions continues’
After the go-ahead of the French wise men to the pension reform, the radical leftist leader, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, condemned a decision that shows a Constitutional Council “more attentive to the needs of the presidential monarchy than to those of the sovereign people. The fight continues We must gather strength.”
Le Pen: ‘The fate of pension reform is not decided’
“If the decision of the Constitutional Council closes the institutional sequence, the political fate of the pension reform is not decided”: is Marine Le Pen’s comment on the decision of the Constitutional Council which approved a large part of the reform of the French government. “The people always have the last word – continued Le Pen -, it will be up to the people to prepare the alternative that will return to this useless and unjust reform”.
THE PROTESTS
Choirs, smoke bombs, protest slogans against Emmanuel Macron and against the government: the protest against the decision of the Constitutional Council which validated a large part of the pension reform is being organized throughout France. In Paris, hundreds of people in the square of the Hotel de Ville, the seat of the Municipality.
The Parisian protest degenerated into clashes. A first procession left from the Hotel de Ville headed for place de la Concorde. After a few tens of meters on rue de Rivoli, first smashed shop windows, stone throwing and police charges.
In the square of the Hotel de Ville some young men wearing black masks they torched an entire parking lot of dozens of rental electric bikes. As the flames gained ground, the batteries of the electric bicycles exploded one after another.
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