Published: Less than 30 min ago
Opponents of the French president’s plan to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 are demonstrating around the country on Saturday. There is great anger at the president’s rejection of meetings with trade union representatives.
Police expect a total of one million people to participate in various parts of France during the day.
Saturday’s demonstrations to pressure the government to withdraw France’s highly unpopular pension plan are the second this week and the seventh since January.
In the past week, President Emmanuel Macron has twice rejected appeals from union representatives to meet with him in a last-ditch effort to get the president to withdraw the proposal.
The unions are “very upset” that they were snubbed by Macron, says Philippe Martinez, leader of the radical left-wing trade union CGT.
– When there are millions of people on the streets, when there are strikes and all we get from the other side is silence, people wonder: What else do we need to do to be heard?”, he says and calls for a referendum on the pension reform.
However, time is running out for the protesters. The proposal has already been debated in the National Assembly and is now up in the Senate. Both chambers must have voted on the issue by March 26 at the latest.
The reform means that the French retirement age – one of the lowest in Europe – is raised from 62 to 64 years and that the French have to work more years to get a full pension. According to opinion polls in February, two thirds of the population are skeptical of the changes.