Hundreds of thousands of French people are once again taking to the streets against a later retirement. The trade unions are mobilizing the streets in a showdown with President Macron – and are threatening massive strikes.
In France, hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated again in several cities on Saturday against President Emmanuel Macron’s planned pension reform. For the fourth time, unions have called for protests against the center government’s plans to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64.
According to the Interior Ministry, 963,000 people took part in the rallies across the country, and the trade unions spoke of 2.5 million participants. A turbulent debate has been going on in Parliament for a week about the controversial reform.
A previously unannounced strike linked to the pensions protests caused disruption at Paris’ Orly Airport on Saturday. As of midday, airlines were called upon to cancel half of their departures, the civil aviation authority said.
General strike on March 7th
The unions announced on Saturday a tougher stance in their fight against the reform. A general strike is to paralyze France completely on March 7, and the next day on International Women’s Day there are also plans to go on strike. Extensive strikes were also announced for the Paris public transport company. Strikes had already led to disabilities in France on three previous days of protest.
Many people in France are already working beyond the age of 62 if they have not paid in long enough to receive a full pension when they reach retirement age. In many strenuous occupations, people could hardly work longer, say opponents of the reform. In addition, the employees wanted to be able to enjoy their well-deserved pension and not completely wear out their health on the job.
Macron justifies the reform with an impending deficit in the pension fund. Because the population is getting older, the employees would have to pay for an increasing number of pensioners with their contributions. In order for the amount of the pension to be kept stable, the population would have to work a little more. The critics question the government’s calculations and say the state must find other sources of funding to keep the pension system in balance.
Macron’s second attempt at reform
But the government doesn’t just want to tighten the retirement age. The increase in the necessary payment period for a full pension, which was decided years ago, is to be accelerated. In addition, individual pension systems with privileges for certain occupational groups are to be abolished. The minimum pension is to rise to around 1,200 euros.
Pension reform is considered one of President Macron’s most important projects. During the corona pandemic, a first attempt to implement the reform was aborted, even then there were massive protests and strikes. A number of presidents before Macron had tried to reform the French pension system with varying degrees of success – widespread protests and strikes were certain.
With Macron’s camp no longer enjoying an absolute majority in parliament, it hopes to push the reform through with the help of conservative Républicains, who have announced support. Some of the MPs – even from Macron’s group – still have reservations.
Source: Stern
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