Anger is growing in France over the higher retirement age: protests and reforms have been announced

Anger is mounting: the French government has swiftly pushed through the controversial pension reform, fueling the anger of the project’s opponents once again. The unions have called for a major day of protest on May 1. Actions are also planned for April 20. President Emmanuel Macron wants to try to calm things down in a televised speech on Monday. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne announced further reforms.

The law raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 was published early Saturday morning in the Government Gazette and came into effect just hours after it was approved by the Constitutional Council. After the decision of the Constitutional Council, protests broke out again in Paris, Nice, Nantes, Rennes and other cities. More than 100 demonstrators were arrested in the capital Paris alone on Friday evening.

Hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets against the pension reform in recent months. This is to avoid an impending hole in the pension fund. The retirement age in France is currently 62 years. In fact, today’s retirement starts later on average: those who have not paid in long enough to receive a full pension continue to work longer. At age 67, there’s a no-withholding pension regardless of how long it’s been paid — that’s what the government is holding onto.

Macron would have had fourteen days to sign the law. Unions asked him again on Friday night not to carry it out. It should now go into effect from September.

“Like thieves, Emmanuel Macron and his gang carried out their pension law in the middle of the night,” left-wing MP François Ruffin tweeted. Marine Le Pen of the right-wing national party Rassemblement National (RN) wrote on Twitter that a president must bring the French people together. But Macron is an “arsonist” who harms democracy. Le Pen, who is on the rise with the retirement age dispute, called for the government and Macron to be punished in the next election. She wants to reverse the reform when she comes to power.

In an interview published in the newspaper “Le Parisien” on Sunday, moderate union leader Laurent Berger said that the overnight entrenchment of the law had made Macron fully express his contempt for the world of work and his detachment from reality. The unions have now called for an “extraordinary and popular mobilization day” for May 1. On April 20, the French railways SNCF will hold a “day of expression of railway anger” – a day before the start of school holidays in the Paris and Occitania regions.

“The battle continues and we must join forces,” said left-wing politician Jean-Luc Mélenchon. The Socialists announced a motion to repeal the law. “I appeal to the president: he must hear the overwhelming majority, which is against this reform, which divides the country among France,” Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo said.

In a televised speech on Monday, Macron wants to try to calm things down. He would speak in a “logic of reconciliation” to take stock of the three-month crisis, as government spokesman Olivier Véran told the television channel “TF1” on Saturday.

Apart from the protests against the increase in the retirement age, Prime Minister Borne wants to implement further reforms. They want to build a France of full employment, guarantee equal opportunities, work on health and education, Borne said Saturday at a meeting of the renaissance presidential party in Paris. (sda/dpa)