French President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform has sparked strong reactions.
Violent demonstrations, strikes and riots have characterized France in the past month.
Now the reform is approved in the Constitutional Council.
Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform is approved.
France’s Constitutional Council confirms this and says there will also be no referendum.
Decisive legal entity
This means that the general retirement age in France will be gradually raised to 64, which still places the country below the norm in Europe.
The Constitutional Council, which approved in principle the entire reform, was the last legal body in the process.
The council does not have the ability to directly stop the increase, but could have stopped parts of Macron’s legislative package because the government bypassed parliament to push through the legislative reform.
Met with political opposition
In Paris, security has been increased during the afternoon, write CNN. In addition, several union leaders have warned of new protests and strikes.
Political scientist Christophe Premat tells TV4 that he does not believe in similar violent riots as in the past.
– Maybe not in the same way, but I believe that all trade unions will unite and continue to cooperate and initiate different types of actions.
In France, as expected, the announcement is met with resistance. On Twitter, former left-wing politician Jean-Luc Melenchon writes that “the struggle continues and must gather new strength”.
Marine Le Pen, party leader of France’s National Assembly, calls the reform “useless and unfair” and says it is now “up to the people”.
France’s general retirement age of 62 has been one of Europe’s lowest. In January, Emmanuel Macron proposed a reform to raise the age limit to 64 years.
Since then, violent protests have taken place around the country. The demonstrations have been going on since mid-March and several strikes have been initiated.
Macron’s criticism of the union
The union has also opposed the reform and previously called on millions of workers to continue demonstrating.
The pension reform has been one of Macron’s heart issues in recent years. But the pandemic and political opposition have delayed the process.
The president, who originally planned to raise the general retirement age to 65, has expressed himself as critical of the union’s actions.
– I can only regret that there have been no compromise proposals from the trade union side, he has previously said, writes TT.