The Constitutional Council of France overturns the referendum on pension reform

The French Constitutional Council rejected this Wednesday the opposition’s request to organize a referendum on joint initiative (RIP, for the acronym in French) so that the legal retirement age in France could not be set above 62. The unpopular pension reform promoted by President Emmanuel Macron, which has already been announced, progressively raises it to 64. The institution chaired by former Prime Minister Laurent Fabius believes that the request for consultation “does not refer, within the meaning of Article 11 of the Constitution, to a reform related to social policy”. , is the main point that this body should examine.

This is the second time in 15 days that the nine sages of the Constitutional Council have stopped the organization of RIP on pension reform. The first petition, submitted by left-wing MPs, was rejected on April 14. He registered the second one 250 representatives and senators of the same ideology. After the double rejection, the opposition has one more bullet left in the parliament against the pension reform. On June 8, the National Assembly will analyze the proposal of the centrist and regionalist parliamentary group LIOT (Freedom, Independents, Overseas and Territories) to scrap the Macron project and return to 62 as the minimum legal retirement age in France. After this review, the text will go to the Senate, where the majority of seats are for the legislative change. The French constitution foresees the possibility of organizing a referendum through a bill on the initiative of one fifth of parliamentarians, that is, at least 185 out of 925 members of parliament between senators and representatives. Although the nine ‘sages’ confirmed the request to promote RIP, there was no guarantee that it would be held. Calling a referendum through this mechanism is a long and cumbersome process. Detractors of the pension reform would have nine months to collect 4.8 million signatures for possible elections.

the protests continue

The two chambers would then have six months to examine the bill. In the unlikely event that members of parliament do not vote on the text, the President of the Republic should call for a referendum. In any case, collecting all the signatures needed to convene it is not a guarantee of holding consultations, as Congress and the Senate could reject them. The reform promoted by Macron, announced on April 15, is due to take effect on September 1. The unions called from January 19 to thirteen mass demonstrations against a project that, among other changes, raises the retirement age, a text rejected by seven out of ten French people, according to polls. The next union protest will take place on June 6, two days before MPs consider LIOT’s proposal to try to repeal the new law.