Macron passes an unpopular pension reform law at dawn

French President Emmanuel Macron officially announced the unpopular law on the night of Friday to Saturday pension reformwhich raises from 62 to 64 years retirement age, after the Constitutional Council had approved the essential content of the text. He did it just a few hours after the approval of this body even though he had 15 days. The new law was published this Saturday in the Journal Officiel, the French equivalent of the Official State Gazette (BOE).

“The Social Security Act has therefore been amended. In the first section, the word ‘sixty-two’ is replaced by the word ‘sixty-four,'” the text of the law reads. Left criticized that Macron acted at night and treason to declare himand those parties and unions asked the president not to do this, considering that two out of three French people are against the reform.

“Like thieves, Emmanuel Macron and his gang passed their pension law in the middle of the night. Because they know it very well: what they have just carried out is a democratic armed robbery”, according to the representative of La France Insoumis François Ruffin. “Even at night, (Macron) hurts,” commented his party colleague Alexis Corbière on Twitter. “The law proclaimed in the middle of the night, like thieves. Thieves of life. May 1, 2023: everyone on the streets,” added Deputy Fabien Roussel, National Secretary of the Communist Party, in the same vein.

The extreme right also criticized the night-time passing of the law. “Macron never stops provoking the French,” said Philippe Ballard, a spokesman for the National Rally, the party of far-right Marine Le Pen. “He seems to be walking the earth with a canister of gasoline in one hand and a lighter in the other saying ‘let’s see what happens,'” he added in statements to BFMTV.

Two out of three French people are against this lawwhich will raise the retirement age from the current 62 to 64

The government, however, does not understand the criticism of the quick adoption of the pension reform law. “There is nothing surprising. It is a logical continuation of the decision of the Constitutional Council», believes Franck Riester, deputy minister in charge of relations with the parliament, in an interview with France Inter radio. This nine-scientist body, chaired by former prime minister Laurent Fabius, confirmed the substance of the text on Friday, including raising the retirement age from 62 to 64, a key measure of the government’s project.

rejection of the referendum

He Constitutionally rejected, however, other mechanisms introduced in the law to compensate for delays in the retirement age, among them, the so-called senior index (a formula that forces large companies to publish an index of the number of employees over the age of 55) and ‘CDI senior (an indefinite contract for the longest-serving workers). This body also rejected the first request by left-wing parties to launch a referendum on a joint initiative (RIP, an acronym in French) that would have forced the French executive to hold a public consultation on pension reform. On May 3, he must decide on the second request.

Before being approved by the Constitutional Council, the unpopular law was approved in parliament, without a vote by the National Assembly, the lower house. Unions have asked the French to hold mass protests on May 1, International Labor Day, against “pension reform and for social justice.” In the last three months, the power plants have called twelve mass street protests demanding the withdrawal of the project, but the government has turned a deaf ear to their demands.