Today in France will be a new day of major strikes throughout the country against the pension reform proposed by the government and which had already caused many protests in recent weeks. The reform, presented in January and now under discussion in the Senate, above all provides for the raising of the minimum age for retirement from 62 to 64, a measure which has caused the most protests from trade union organisations, from the opposition and from good part of French public opinion.
There had already been five days of strike between the end of January and February, but it is estimated that today may be the most popular and will cause the most inconvenience. The unions that called the strike they said that their goal is for France to be completely “locked down” today.
The strike will affect rail, air and local transport, energy plants, refineries, schools and lorry drivers. There will also be demonstrations in more than 250 French cities, in which the police estimate more than a million people will participate.
The pension reform bill was presented after weeks of inconclusive negotiations between the government and the unions: among other things, it foresees the anticipation from 2035 to 2027 of the so-called “Touraine” law, which increases the period for which it is necessary to pay contributions to retire, and the abolition of some special pension schemes, among a number of other measures.
French President Emmanuel Macron had already tried to reform French pensions in 2019, and even then there had been big and participate protests. He is not the first French president to want to change the pension system, considered by many to be overly complicated, inefficient and unfair.
In France, there are 42 different pension schemes, with considerable differences in the benefits and treatments of the individual categories. And it is also a very expensive pension system: in 2020 it cost the equivalent of 13.6 percent of GDP, less than the Italian one in proportion (15.6 percent of GDP), but still more than in most European countries. According to estimates and official predictions the French system may not be sustainable in the long run and risk returning to a deficit (as happened in 2020, the last time).
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