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.
ANSA.it
Green light from the ‘wise’ to raise the retirement age to 64 years. Referendum request rejected. Macron will promulgate the law within 48 hours. In the capital, broken windows, stone throwing and police charges. Dozens of rental electric bikes are on fire. Mélenchon: ‘The struggle continues’ (ANSA)
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”.
Demonstrations everywhere, 112 stopped in Paris
Spontaneous demonstrations and impromptu demonstrations in the name of anger this evening everywhere in France, with not a little violence on the sidelines. In Rennes, the door of a police station was set on fire, in Paris there were many clashes with the police, bins burned and vandalism, with a final balance of 112 arrested. In Paris, the demonstrations continued in various districts of the city until late in the evening, after having begun in the afternoon following the announcement of the verdict of the Constitutional Council, which validated a large part of the pension reform.
The incidents began in the square of the Hotel de Ville, where some 4,000 demonstrators had gathered to protest, then continued on the rue de Rivoli, up to the place de la République. Other groups of young people left in procession from the Gare Saint-Lazare. Around 9 pm, incidents and police charges took place in many districts of the capital. Accidents in Rennes, where the door of a police station and later the entrance to a congress center in the historic Jacobin convent was set on fire. Demonstrations and rallies were organized in Lille, Dijon, Caen, Marseille, Nice, Toulouse.
In Marseille, demonstrators took to the platforms in Saint-Charles station, where trains were suspended. In Strasbourg, several hundred people staged a spontaneous demonstration which ended in violence and tear gas by the police. Incidents also occurred in Bordeaux, Lyon and Grenoble, where there were clashes between demonstrators and the police.