The international press greedily scrutinizes, this January 19, the “D-Day” of Emmanuel Macron’s second five-year term, while the country is overwhelmed by a “very French” wave of strikes and demonstrations, led by the unions which unite for the first time in 12 years to protect the “beloved totem” of pensions. More than 200 rallies are taking place across the country to fight against the reform launched by Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne on January 10, which would (among other things) push back the retirement age to 64.
A “necessary” reform for many English-language media
For the American newspaper the New York Times, it is the reform of a “costly and generous” pension system, a “cherished totem” by workers and unions of all stripes, in which Emmanuel Macron is embarking. A reform that is nevertheless “necessary” according to the British financial daily FinancialTimes. Evidenced by the title of his editorial: “Emmanuel Macron’s essential pension reform.”
If it remains unchanged, “the pension system will record annual deficits of between 0.4 and 0.8% of gross domestic product over the next quarter century”, points out the liberal daily. A hole “not catastrophic”, but “yet a hole that must be filled” by increasing the minimum full rate contribution from 41.5 years to 43 years, the newspaper judges. The path will however be “marked with political pitfalls”, warns the Financial Times, which highlights the French exception in Europe. French men “retire more than two years earlier than the EU average, women one year. Enjoying life after work with a decent pension is part of the social contract”, he recalls. . In Germany and Spain, the retirement age varies between 65 and 67 years.
More than an economic necessity, the reform is perceived by the American online media Politico as a “need to show the Germans and other European countries that France is not Club Med”. A risky political gesture, underlines the media: “The French president puts his mandate on the line amid signs of growing social tension and discontent in France”, subtitles it. In the midst of inflation, “ministers have bent over backwards to stifle the nascent protest movement, whether among health service workers, bakers, restaurant and bar owners”, details the media, “sign of the nervousness of the government”, he analyzes.
Reform “without dismantling the welfare state”
This January 19 therefore constitutes “D-Day of Emmanuel Macron’s second five-year term” for the spanish daily the Razon, “the hour of truth” adds El País. The French president is “weighed down by the continual crises he has had to manage, from the pandemic to the energy crisis caused by the war, which have reduced his reform program to a trickle”, adds the Spanish daily. Presented in the midst of an inflationary context, the reform “poses a risk of social explosion and threatens to trigger a wave of demonstrations difficult to assess today”, he gauges.
In any case, this reform project will be a “test which will determine whether the president can still implement his liberal program”, and a “symbol of Macron’s efforts to restore competitiveness to the French economy, without dismantle the welfare state”, judge The Wall Street Journal.
“It’s not enough to be right”
For other media, the economic context which weighs on the population could on the contrary attenuate the French enthusiasm. “In a context of war, inflation and rising electricity prices, Macron expects public opinion to resign itself and accept this reform without massive strikes,” predicts the Argentinian newspaper Page 12.
bad tactic, according to Frankfurter Rundshau, which points out that “it is not enough to be right” to win this battle. “The French men and women see in this affair the obstinacy of a Head of State who thinks only of his personal success and does not listen to the 68% of citizens who are against the reform, comments the German left-wing daily: “Instead of convincingly explaining that the financing of their retirement is threatened, it proclaims that citizens must ‘work more’. Even if it amounts to the same thing, it’s bad timing at a time when inflation is driving down wages,” he said.
While social mobilization begins on January 19 and is already planning to be renewed in the coming weeks, “like so many other reforms in the Macron era, the result will probably be decided in the street”, concludes the American progressive weekly TheNation.