Emmanuel Macron addresses the French on TV with a speech in which he tries to re-establish dialogue after the disputed promulgation of the pension reform law, between last Friday and Saturday. The publication in the Official Gazette only a few hours after the go-ahead from the Constitutional Council was interpreted by the unions and the opposition as yet another “provocation”. “He shows contempt right up to the last minute,” CFDT leader Laurent Berger said. “The changes envisaged by this pension law will take effect gradually starting in the autumn”: these are the first words of Emmanuel Macron in his televised address to the French after confirming that he had promulgated the reform law which has been causing protests in the country for three months.
Pension reform in France, trade union: ‘Government won’t back down but neither will we’
Pension reform “was necessary to secure everyone’s pension and to produce more wealth for our nation,” he stressed Macron. “While the number of pensioners increases – he said – and our life expectancy lengthens, the answer could not have been to lower pensions or increase the contributions of those who work. The reform was necessary, but is it an accepted reform? Clearly it is not. Despite months of consultation, a consensus could not be found. And I regret it, we must draw all the lessons from it”. “I have heard the rage of the French. I heard in the demonstrations an opposition to the reform – continued the president – but also a will to rediscover meaning in one’s work, to improve its conditions, to have careers that allow one to progress in life”.
Pension reform in France, protesters march in Paris
The trade unions and the parties that opposed the reform that raises the retirement age from 62 to 64 say they are determined to continue the battle, even if from an institutional point of view the path of the reform has been completed. Macron would like to “turn the page” and “move on to other reforms” – as Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne underlined – but the use of trust to pass a law in parliament that most French people did not want has left its mark. The president will receive ministers and leaders of the majority at the Elysée Palace during the day to consult them on the “prospects and the coming weeks and months”, they say in his entourage. The trade unions – who also meet during the day to finalize the strategy – want to keep the social temperature high and not let the protest die down. For May 1, the leader of the CGT, Sophie Binet, wants a “popular and historic wave” in the streets. Berger hopes that on that day “all records will be broken in terms of demonstrators in the square”.
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