French Constitutional Council rejects referendum on pension reform

The opponents of France’s controversial pension reform have failed with another attempt to overturn the long-decided plan. The Constitutional Council in Paris also rejected a second opposition request for a referendum on Wednesday. There are no longer any great prospects for the opposition or the trade unions to block President Emmanuel Macron’s reform.

As early as mid-April, the Constitutional Council had rejected an initial request for a referendum on capping the retirement age at 62 as unfounded. Moreover, he thought the reform was fundamentally legal. In that respect, the second application had little chance of success.

With the reform that Macron has now implemented, the retirement age will gradually increase from September 1 to 64. But protests against the project continue. Most recently, on May 1, there were mass demonstrations against the reform. On June 6, the unions again called for demonstrations.

Meanwhile, Macron and his government hope the situation calms down and want to move on to other matters as soon as possible. To regain the confidence of the population, Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne presented a 100-day program a week ago with steps for improvement in areas such as education, health and internal security.

As with pension reform, the government is in a tight spot, having lost an absolute majority in parliament since last summer’s elections. Borne therefore postponed a new migration law until the autumn. (sda/dpa)