President Macron’s reform agenda faces a make-or-break moment as French unions conduct a day of major strikes and demonstrations on Thursday in opposition to his plans to raise the retirement age.
The official retirement age will increase from 62 to 64 as a result of a bill currently pending in the legislature.
Amtrak and Amtrak commuter services are severely interrupted.
There are numerous closed schools and other public services. One out of every five flights at the Orly airport in Paris has been canceled.
Only the two driverless lines on the Paris metro are operating normally.
In Paris and other cities, large rallies involving tens of thousands are anticipated. And police will be on patrol in case of violence by ultra-left “black bloc” infiltrators.
By the measures made earlier this month by Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne. People will be required to work 43 years beginning in 2027, as opposed to 42 years currently.
According to a poll conducted this week by IFOP, 68 percent of respondents oppose the reform. Which has been hailed by the French government as an essential measure to maintain the country’s share-out pension system.
All of the country’s unions, including so-called “reformist” unions, that the administration had intended to win over. Also the left-wing and far-right oppositions in the National Assembly, have rejected the measure.
France attempts to prevent Macron from raising the retirement age
On Tuesday, the leader of the Communist Party, Fabien Roussel, stated that the walls of the Élysée Palace must shake on Thursday.
Because his Renaissance party lacks a majority in the Assembly, French President Emmanuel Macron will be obliged to rely on the 60 or so conservative Republican MPs. Even though they are generally in favor of pension reform, several of them have warned they may vote against it.
As the parliamentary procedure is anticipated to take many weeks, Mr. Macron is likely to confront a rolling campaign of opposition, with further days of action anticipated in the coming days. The worst-case scenario for the government would be rolling strikes in transportation, hospitals, and fuel depots, ultimately paralyzing the nation.
Political observers agreed that the national mood was difficult to detect, therefore it was impossible to anticipate whether the magnitude of the movement would be sufficient to force the president to recede. If this were to occur, it could spell the end of any significant reforms in his second term.
On the one hand, inflation, the energy crisis, and continual news of deteriorating public services have left a great number of individuals feeling anxious and irritable. The poor image of President Macron outside of rich cities contributed to the “yellow vest” uprising four years ago and could very well do so again.
Raising the retirement age
On the other hand, surveyors have discovered a widespread attitude of resignation among those who no longer connect with “traditional” social movements, such as the unions. Many will be too worried about the loss of a day’s earnings to strike.
To justify the decision to require extended work hours, the prime minister emphasized the concept of “intergenerational solidarity.” Under the French system, very few individuals have capital-investment-based personal pension plans.
Instead, the pensions of retirees are paid from the same communal fund to which working individuals contribute each month. Workers are aware that they will receive the same treatment in retirement.
However, according to the government, the system is on the verge of collapse. Because the proportion of working individuals to retirees is steadily decreasing. The ratio has decreased from four workers per retiree 50 years ago to approximately 1.7 per retiree today and will continue to decline in the coming years.
Italy and Germany, for example, have set the official retirement age at 67, while Spain’s is set at 65. Nearly all other European nations have taken efforts to increase the official retirement age. The average age in the United Kingdom is now 66.
France attempts to prevent Macron
President Macron launched an earlier, more ambitious effort to change the system at the end of 2019. But he abandoned it when Covid struck. This second proposal was included in his re-election platform from the previous year. A significant argument used by the government in its war for public opinion.
To mitigate the effects of the reform, Élisabeth Borne has pledged to make it easier for those with risky or physically demanding employment to retire early, to encourage older workers to return to the workforce and to increase the guaranteed minimum pension.
The opposition contends there is no pressing need to intervene because the system is not officially in deficit at present. It states that there are cost-saving alternatives to requiring individuals to work longer, such as pension cuts for the wealthy.
It also states that the poorest will bear the burden of the reform. In most cases, these individuals have earned the right to a full pension by age 62 since they began working earlier in life. Now they must work two additional years for no further benefit.
Since President Francois Mitterrand lowered the retirement age to 60 in 1982, this is the seventh French pension reform.
Every subsequent attempt to reverse that shift was met with widespread public opposition. Although on the majority of occasions, the reform was ultimately successful. In 2010, despite weeks of protests, Nicolas Sarkozy raised the retirement age to 62.
