Tag: pension reform

A dog day afternoon in French politics as Macron uses ‘nuclear option’ to raise retirement age

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France entered a period of political uncertainty on Thursday as French President Emmanuel Macron rammed a controversial pension reform through parliament without a vote by invoking a special executive measure. With the opposition braced for a no-confidence vote and the unions threatening more strikes, France witnessed a dramatic afternoon in politics.

The scenes in the National Assembly, France’s lower house of parliament, on Thursday appeared to have been lifted from historical dramas dating back to the country’s revolutionary past.

“Aux armes citoyens, formez vos bataillons,” sang opposition lawmakers as the chamber echoed with the rallying cry of La Marseillaise, the French national anthem, rallying citizens to take up arms and form battalions. “S’il vous plait, s’il vous plait,” pleaded Yaël Braun-Pivet, the speaker of the National Assembly, ineffectually trying to get order in the house.

Far-left lawmakers in the National Assembly hold placards and sing La Marseillaise, the French national anthem, on March 16, 2023. The placards read “64 years old: No!” © Pascal Rossignol, Reuters

The session was suspended for two minutes before Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne could announce the triggering of Article 49.3 of the French constitution, which grants the government executive privilege to pass a bill without a vote. Triggering Article 49.3 also permits the opposition to respond with a no-confidence motion. 

“Today, we are faced with uncertainty that hinges on a few votes. We cannot take the risk of 175 hours of parliamentary debates collapsing,” said the 61-year-old French prime minister, raising her voice above the din. “On the basis of Article 49.3 of the constitution, I engage the responsibility of my government on the pension reform bill.”

With that, the likely unlikely happened in French politics on Thursday afternoon. President Emmanuel Macron was reelected last year after running on a campaign pledge to raise the retirement age. His reputation as an economic reformer hinged on his ability to make the French work longer by raising the official retirement age from 62, the lowest of any country in the EU.

The French president initially proposed a retirement age of 65, but that was brought down to 64 in January, when he floated the pension reform plan following months of talks with trade unions, employers and political parties.

For Macron, it was the mother of all reforms. For the opposition, particularly the far-left NUPES (New Ecological and Social Popular Union) alliance, it was the mother of all political opposition battles. France’s powerful unions were also on the opposition’s side, and they made it clear with eight nationwide strikes over the past three months, drawing over a million people on the streets almost every week.

While both sides played dare, the threat of Article 49.3 – or simply 49.3 as its popularly known – hung in the air. It was a nuclear option that neither side wanted and few imagined would come to pass. But now that it has, it leaves Macron weakened, Borne particularly vulnerable, and France in a state of shock as the politicians plot their next moves, keeping the country on edge.

An anxious weekend

Under the French constitution, once the prime minister invokes Article 49.3, the opposition has 24 hours to table a motion of censure.

Shortly after Borne’s address in the National Assembly on Thursday, Marine Le Pen said her far-right National Rally party would file a no-confidence motion. Communist lawmaker Fabien Roussel said such a motion is “ready” on the left.

For a no-confidence vote to be put to the chamber, the motion must be signed by at least one-tenth of the National Assembly’s 577 deputies.

Once the no-confidence motion is tabled, the National Assembly has to wait 48 hours before it is discussed in the chamber.

French law provides the 48-hour period to enable the government to convince undecided parties, and to allow lawmakers to make their decision after careful deliberations.

A no-confidence vote requires a majority, which means a minimum of 287 votes.

With a no-confidence motion set to be tabled on Friday, a vote is likely early next week, leaving the French in a state of heightened political anxiety over the weekend. What’s more, by opting for 49.3, Macron may have taken a safe option, but there’s no guarantee it will bring him any peace.

‘Reaping the harvest’ of the 2022 legislative elections

From the onset of the mass mobilisation against the pension reform, Article 49.3 was viewed as a risky option. But with the government unsure of getting the minimum 287 votes in the National Assembly needed to approve the pension bill, Macron chose to play it safe by opting for the nuclear option.

The conservative- dominated Senate approved the reform earlier Thursday in a move that was widely predicted. The political drama was always going to be in the lower house, where the president’s centrist La République en Marche (Renaissance) party does not have a majority.

With just hours to go before the National Assembly vote, Macron held a Cabinet meeting at the Elysée presidential palace to strategise the next move as the country waited with baited breath.

The decision to opt for 49.3 came just a few minutes before the scheduled vote in the National Assembly. The roots of the controversial decision, though, date back to the June 2022 legislative elections, when Macron’s alliance lost its parliamentary majority.

“The president was already weakened when his centrist grouping, Renaissance, failed to gain an absolute majority in the legislative elections back in June,” explained FRANCE 24’s International Affairs Commentator Douglas Herbert. “We’re basically reaping the harvest of the last legislative elections. What we’re seeing right now are the vulnerabilities of a presidential movement or party when it doesn’t have a parliamentary majority.”

Thursday saw the article used for the 100th time under France’s modern constitution, which created an all-powerful president in 1958, overturning the previous one and its parliamentary system.

Under the modern fifth republic, 16 prime ministers have used the article and have managed to stay in power.

Macron’s government is expected to survive a no-confidence vote after the head of the conservative Republicans party in the opposition said it would vote with the president’s allies, which are 39 seats short of a majority in the 577-seat assembly.

But the anger on the streets is likely to undermine the very purpose of his pension reform. Raising the retirement age, Macron noted, was necessary to make the French economy more competitive and in tune with the rest of the developed world, where people are living longer and healthier lives with security benefits threatening to put budgets into deficits.

However the social fallout of Macron’s latest political gamble is unlikely to increase France’s economic competitiveness while highlighting its exceptionalism as a country deeply committed to maintaining the existing official retirement age.

By Thursday night, thousands of protesters had gathered on Place de la Concorde, across the river Seine from parliament. Police fired tear gas as angry demonstrators hurled cobble stones at security officers. In several other French cities, including Marseille, there were also spontaneous protests against the reform.

French unions called for another day of strikes and action against the reform on Thursday, March 23.

It was just one sign of things to come, according to Herbert. “If you thought things were already tense in France over the past couple of weeks, couple of months, stand by, because passions are about to be even more inflamed,” he warned.

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Rubbish piles up in streets of Paris as France’s pension battle enters final stretch

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A protracted strike by rubbish collectors has added a new twist to France’s festering dispute over pension reform as the battle over President Emmanuel Macron’s deeply unpopular reform enters a make-or-break week with tonnes of uncollected garbage piling higher by the day.

“When the rubbish collectors go on strike, the trashers are indignant.” Jacques Prévert’s iconic play on words has long been a favourite slogan of the French left – and indeed of all advocates of workers’ right to lay down their tools in protest.

Two months into a bitter tussle over pension reform, and with garbage piling up in the streets of Paris and other cities, the French poet’s words resonate with a festering labour dispute that opponents of Macron’s reform have successfully reframed as a battle for social justice.

The fight over Macron’s flagship – and deeply unpopular – pension overhaul has now entered the final stretch, moving through tricky political territory in parliament even as unions and protesters continue to challenge it in the street.

At its heart is a plan to raise the country’s minimum retirement age from 62 to 64 and stiffen requirements for a full pension, which the government says is required to balance the books amid shifting demographics. Unions, however, say the proposed measures are profoundly unfair, primarily affecting low-skilled workers who start their careers early and have physically draining jobs, as well as women with discontinuous careers.

>> ‘I can’t take any more’: Working-class French lament Macron’s push to raise retirement age

A week of strike action by dustbin collectors has resulted in some 5,600 tonnes of garbage piling up across the French capital, including in front of the right-wing-dominated Senate, which gave the pension reform its preliminary backing in a late-night vote on Saturday.

 

Piles of rubbish litter the banks of the Seine, opposite the Eiffel Tower. © Michel Euler, AP

 

But the plan to raise France’s minimum retirement age faces further hurdles in parliament later this week – with rubbish piles growing by the day, the smell of decaying food wafting in the wind, and only late-winter temperatures sparing Parisians a greater stench.

Betraying France’s essential workers

The government, trade unions, and Paris city officials have been trading the blame for allowing the streets of the world’s most visited city to be fouled, with tourist hotspots among the areas affected by the strike.

In a flurry of tweets on Sunday, Sylvain Gaillard, a lawmaker from Macron’s ruling Renaissance party, urged Mayor Anne Hidalgo’s left-leaning administration to “requisition” garbage trucks and incinerators blocked by the strikers, while Olivia Grégoire and Clément Beaune, the junior ministers for tourism and European affairs respectively, both slammed the municipality’s “contempt for Parisians”. The next day, Gabriel Attal, the junior budget minister, accused Hidalgo of encouraging the city’s employees to go on strike.

Paris officials were quick to fire back, laying the blame squarely on the government’s shoulders.

“Rubbish collectors worked throughout the pandemic; it took this infamous pension reform for them to lay down their tools,” Ian Brossat, a deputy mayor of Paris, hit back in a tweet. “And how does the government thank them? With two more years of work!”

At the Ivry incinerator on the eastern edge of Paris, one of three blocked facilities that process most of the capital’s waste, sewage worker Julien Devaux said he was not surprised to see the government “turn its back” on the essential workers it championed at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“I think the public was truly grateful, but we also knew those in power would not live up to their word,” said the 46-year-old representative of the CGT trade union, manning the picket line along with a few dozen colleagues.

Striking workers have occupied this incinerator in Ivry-sur-Seine, on the edge of Paris.
Striking workers have occupied this incinerator in Ivry-sur-Seine, on the edge of Paris. © Benjamin Dodman, FRANCE 24

 

Rubbish collectors can currently retire from the age of 57 owing to the particularly tough nature of their jobs, while sewage workers can leave at 52. According to the CGT, both categories will have to work two more years under the government’s planned reform, a prospect Devaux says is untenable.

“I can assure you that spending three to four hours down in the sewers, as we do on an average day, is like working 48 hours round-the-clock,” he explained. “I know plenty of colleagues who are physically crushed by the time they reach their mid-40s. Some die even before retirement while many more fall critically ill soon after.”

According to studies by the IRNS health watchdog, sewage workers are twice as likely to die before the age of 65 as the rest of the population. The huge discrepancy reflects broader inequalities affecting blue-collar workers, who stand to lose most from the planned pension overhaul.

Should the reform pass, Devaux added, “there will be more and more of us who never get to enjoy the pension they deserve”.

Public support

The perceived inequity of Macron’s pension reform has touched a raw nerve in a country that has the word “égalité” (equality) enshrined in its motto. Talk of its unfairness has been a key driver of the mass protests that brought millions to the streets in cities, towns and villages across the country, drawing from well beyond the ranks of the left.

The notion of pénibilité (arduousness) in particular has been a recurrent theme, with protesters lamented the government’s refusal to acknowledge the hardship endured by low-income workers who perform physically-draining tasks. Macron has in the past said he was “not a fan” of the word pénibilité, “because it suggests that work is a pain”.

In January, more than a hundred public figures, including last year’s Nobel literature laureate Annie Ernaux, signed a petition denouncing a reform that “runs contrary to the history of social progress, (…) hitting hardest those who work in the most difficult, physically and psychologically demanding jobs, and who are less likely to enjoy a peaceful retirement and imagine a future after the age of 64”.

Polls have consistently shown that more than two thirds of the country oppose the government’s plans – including a staggering three in four women, according to a recent Elabe poll. A broad majority of the French has also expressed support for strikes that have disrupted schools, public transport and fuel deliveries.

>> ‘Not just about pensions’: French protesters see threat to social justice in Macron’s reform

At the picket line in Ivry, Devaux said the public had been broadly supportive of their struggle, “directing their wrath at the government that caused this situation in the first place”.

“Our job is to keep Paris clean – none of us are happy to see rubbish pile up,” he said. “But the public understand that this is the only tool we have to defend our rights.”

Over in central Paris, pastry chef Romain Gaia offered support for the rubbish collectors even as he complained of rats and mice gathering around smelly piles of trash. “They are quite right to strike,” he told AFP. “Normally they have no power, but when they lay down their tools, that’s when they have power.”

Russian roulette

Despite promises to “grind the economy to a halt”, France’s united front of trade unions has so far proved powerless to stop the pension reform in its tracks, while the ebbing number of protesters who turned out at rallies on Saturday led some analysts to suggest their momentum may be fading.

Still, the scale of opposition to the reform has piled the pressure on ministers and lawmakers alike, adding to the uncertainty surrounding the outcome of looming votes.


 

Unions are planning more strikes and an eighth round of nationwide protests on Wednesday, the day the pension reform heads to a committee of seven senators and seven lower-house lawmakers. They will aim to find a compromise between the two chambers’ versions of the legislation.

If the committee reaches a deal, the approved text will be put to a vote the following day in both the Senate and the National Assembly. However, the outcome in the latter chamber, where Macron’s centrist alliance lost its majority last year, is hard to predict, with the government dependent on support from conservative lawmakers in the opposition.

At the weekend, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne tweeted her optimism that the measure would be “definitively adopted in the coming days”. She is hoping the government won’t have to resort to a special constitutional option, known as the “article 49.3”, that would force the pension reform through without a vote.

Borne has used that mechanism 10 times before, but invoking it for such a sensitive issue would be seen as an explosive move, almost certainly triggering a no-confidence motion that many opposition parties would be tempted to support.

That prospect means the government effectively faces a choice between two gambles, the conservatives’ top senator Bruno Retailleau quipped on Sunday: “Either playing Russian roulette (with a vote on the bill) or firing the Big Bertha gun (and facing a no-confidence vote)”.

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‘We can defeat Macron’: Why women’s anger is fuelling French pension protests

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Huge crowds marched across France on Tuesday in a sixth round of protests against President Emmanuel Macron’s plan to raise the retirement age, signalling continued opposition to a controversial reform that polls say up two three-quarters of French women reject.

In the French capital, where organisers say well over half a million people turned out (police put the number at fewer than 100,000), unionists and left-wing parties traded their traditional eastern rallying points for the wealthy 6th arrondissement (district) of central Paris, gathering along the fashion boulevards of the left bank.

Outside the famed Lutetia palace hotel, puzzled tourists and shoppers worked their way through a sea of union and other flags. A few steps away, dozens of women danced to the tune of Gloria Gaynor’s “I will survive”, each of them dressed as the feminist champion Rosie the Riveter in her iconic blue overalls.

Unionists gather outside the Lutetia palace hotel in Paris ahead of Tuesday’s rally. © Benjamin Dodman, FRANCE 24

Among them was Camille, a 54-year-old publisher who said she turned out to protest in solidarity with the low-income workers – many of them women – who “stand to lose most” from the pension overhaul. She slammed a reform “hashed out in a hurried and brutal manner, without consultations and despite overwhelming opposition”.

“Women are structurally underpaid and their pensions are lower as a result. And yet they have some of the most exhausting jobs, working absurd hours on top of caring for the young and the elderly,” she said, pointing to the fact that women’s pensions are on average 40 percent lower than men’s.

She added: “The fact that they’re being asked to work longer now only adds insult to injury.“

The reform’s Achilles’ heel

Macron has staked his reformist credentials on passage of his flagship pension overhaul, which polls say around two thirds of the French now oppose – including a staggering 74 percent of women, according to a recent survey by the Elabe institute.

The government argues that raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 and stiffening the requirements for a full pension are required to balance the pension system amid shifting demographics. But unions say the proposed measures are unfair and would disproportionately affect low-skilled workers who start their careers early, as well as women.

>> ‘I can’t take any more’: Working-class French lament Macron’s push to raise retirement age

Opponents of the reform have succeeded in framing the pension debate in much larger terms, focusing on the questions of how wealth is distributed under Macron, and whether the poorest and most vulnerable will carry the burden of his proposals.

Talk of the text’s gender imbalance has gained particular traction, not least since one of Macron’s own ministers admitted in January that it would “leave women a little penalised” – in one of several PR blunders that have marred the government’s attempts to promote its increasingly unpopular plan.

“Macron and his government have lied by claiming that women would be better off thanks to this reform,” said Camille at the Paris rally. “This injustice towards women is the reform’s Achilles’ heel: a united front of French women can defeat it.”


 

The sense that the government had misled women was shared by many protesters, fuelling their resentment of the proposal, which is currently being hurried through parliament.

“The government claimed the reform would foster ‘justice’ and ‘equality’, but it soon turned out to be a publicity stunt,” said Sandrine Tellier, 47, a representative of the energy and mining branch of the Force Ouvrière trade union. “In reality, it merely aggravates existing inequalities.”

Justice at stake

France’s enduring gender pay gap is reflected in a discrepancy between the average pensions paid out to men and women. That discrepancy is exacerbated by rules penalising those who worked part time or whose careers are interrupted by childcare.

They include 64-year-old Florentine Delangue, whose record of unpaid apprenticeships and career interruptions mean she is yet to qualify for a full pension, despite getting her first job at a hair salon aged 16.

“I started working two years before my husband, but I will have to keep going after he’s retired,” she said. “That’s why I’m angry.”

As in past protests against Macron's pension reform, students featured prominently in Tuesday's rally.
As in past protests against Macron’s pension reform, students featured prominently in Tuesday’s rally. © Benjamin Dodman, FRANCE 24

Jacqueline, a 57-year-old lab worker at a Paris hospital, said she couldn’t bear the prospect of having to work an extra two years before qualifying for a full pension. She claimed she had never taken part in a protest before.

“I worked part-time to raise my daughter, but I had no choice. It’s not like I went part-time to go to the beach or something,” she said. “This is too much. I’m too tired and there’s too much injustice.”

>> ‘Not just about pensions’: French protesters see threat to social justice in Macron’s reform

The notion of pénibilité (arduousness) was a recurrent theme at the rally, where protesters lamented the government’s refusal to acknowledge the hardship endured by low-income workers who perform physically-draining tasks. Macron has in the past said he was “not a fan” of the word pénibilité, “because it suggests that work is a pain”.

Such a stance reflects politicians’ “insensitivity” and “ignorance of the realities of life”, said veteran theatre director Ariane Mnouchkine, adding that “parliamentarians should try working as hotel cleaners to see what back-breaking work really feels like”.

Mnouchkine’s troupe from the Theatre du Soleil carried a huge statue of Lady Justice, blindfolded and holding a balance and sword. The 84-year-old director said the very principle of justice was at stake in France’s pension battle.

“The government is sentencing those who live the toughest lives to tougher retirement, whereas they deserve a more comfortable one,” she explained. “The only consolation is that everyone seems to have realised just how unfair this is.”

A statue of Lady Justice carried by members of Ariane Mnouchkine's Theatre du Soleil at the Paris protest.
A statue of Lady Justice carried by members of Ariane Mnouchkine’s Theatre du Soleil at the Paris protest. © Benjamin Dodman, FRANCE 24

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‘Live to work or work to live?’: Why France’s youth are fighting Macron’s pension reform

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France’s youth have featured prominently in mass protests against President Emmanuel Macron’s planned pension overhaul, rallying against a reform they consider to be unfair and symptomatic of a broader rollback of social rights. FRANCE 24 spoke to young demonstrators who took part in the latest protest in Paris.

Hundreds of thousands of French people marched in a third day of nationwide protests on Tuesday against the government’s plan to raise the minimum retirement age from 62 to 64 while strikes and walkouts disrupted public transport and schools. Though turnout was lower than on previous occasions, young people – including many teenagers – continued to feature prominently in the rallies in towns and cities across France. 


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While retirement is a distant prospect for students and young workers mobilised against Macron’s planned pension overhaul, their opposition to the reform ties in with generational concerns about climate change, youth unemployment, societal reform and the widespread perception that governments are steadily chipping away at France’s cherished welfare model. 

FRANCE 24 spoke to young protesters who took part in Tuesday’s rally in the French capital. 

‘We live in a productivist society that is destroying our planet’

  • Rose, 16, high-school student

It’s important to go out and protest because this reform takes us a huge step back. It will mean rolling back the social progress and rights won in the past. 

We live in a productivity-obsessed society that is preoccupied with economic growth and which has been destroying our planet for decades. Now we’re being asked to work for two more years so we can produce even more. This system is wrecking our planet – it’s normal to rebel against it. Among my generation, we’re overwhelmingly concerned about the environment; we have no choice. But we know that small steps alone won’t change things. I’m vegetarian, I recycle as much as I can … but if we don’t resist more, it won’t be enough.  

I’m not very optimistic for the future, unless we profoundly change the way our society functions. That’s why I protest – and why I’ll still be out protesting in 20 years’ time. It’s not about young people wanting to skip class. It’s about our political commitment on issues that are fundamental for us. 

‘We should be able to live longer and in better health, without working ourselves to death’

Yannaël, 24, says the reform is unfair to people who perform physically demanding jobs.
Yannaël, 24, says the reform is unfair to people who perform physically demanding jobs. © Lou Roméo, FRANCE 24

  • Yannaël, 24, studies medieval history at the Sorbonne University in Paris 

This reform is unfair because it categorises physically arduous jobs the same as any other. I can understand the need to balance budgets when the population is getting older. But any reform must take into account the fact that some jobs are physically more demanding than others. 

>> ‘I can’t take any more’: Working-class French lament Macron’s push to raise retirement age

We should be able to live longer and in better health without working ourselves to death. Besides, if they’re talking about retiring at 64 now, what will it be when I’m 60? Will I have to work until I’m 70 or 75? 

This is the first time I am protesting, because the government is pushing us too far. They refuse to listen to the people. (…) My aim is to become a teacher, but I’m worried I’ll be paid a pittance to do a difficult job with classes that are becoming ever-larger. That’s what I’m scared of and that’s why I’m out here protesting: to better our society and our future. 

‘Will we work all our lives instead of working for a living?’ 

  • Shaïma, 17, high-school student in Vitry-sur-Seine, southeast of Paris 

I’m anxious for my parents and grandparents, but also for my generation. Will we even get a pension when our time comes? Or will we just work all our lives instead of working for a living? 

I worry for my parents, who are both 55 and have work-related illnesses. They wonder whether they’ll live long enough to retire. My mother is a care worker and my dad works at the post office, sorting mail all day long. They both need surgery. If the retirement age is pushed back, will they ever get a chance to rest and enjoy life? 

I worry for my own future too. I’m scared that I won’t find work after my studies because more jobs will be taken by older workers whose retirement has been pushed back. I see people all around me who can’t find work despite their degrees. Young people are also affected by this. 

‘Older people should be able to participate in society without having to make money’

The reform is
The reform is “the straw that broke the camel’s back”, says 23-year-old neuropsychologist Bertille. © Lou Roméo, FRANCE 24

  • Bertille, 23, neuropsychologist at a Paris hospital 

This reform is the straw that broke the camel’s back. There comes a point when you start thinking, ‘are there any social benefits they haven’t rolled back?’ And when will we finally say enough is enough? Our hospitals are at breaking point, inflation is sky-high… and yet nothing changes. Now is our chance to force the government to back down, because this issue affects everyone.  

Of course, we’re still young and retirement is a distant prospect for us. But the more we let them eat away at our rights, the less we will have when it’s our turn to retire. It’s everyone’s duty to protect our rights, to protect society’s most vulnerable, and to make sure we continue progressing.  

>> ‘Not just about pensions’: French protesters see threat to social justice in Macron’s reform

We should also remember that most people’s health begins to decline around the age of 64. After a lifetime of work, it is only fair that people should enjoy some time for themselves while they are still healthy and able to participate in society without having to make money. It’s what many elderly people already do: looking after others and playing active roles in charities. It might not be lucrative, but it’s beneficial. 

‘There are other ways to finance pensions, like taxing the ultra-rich’

Amélie, 21, says there are other ways to finance France's pension system, such as reintroducing a wealth tax scrapped by Macron.
Amélie, 21, says there are other ways to finance France’s pension system, such as reintroducing a wealth tax scrapped by Macron. © Lou Roméo, FRANCE 24

  • Amélie, 21, studies sociology at the university of Paris Cité 

People say the young are lazy and don’t want to work – but it’s not true. My generation has been hit hard by Covid and the situation hasn’t improved. Most of my fellow students have to work to pay for their studies. And we have no guarantee we’ll find jobs with decent salaries after we graduate. 

I think the government’s reform presents us with a false dilemma. There are other ways of financing our pension system, like taxing the ultra-rich, restoring the wealth tax that Macron’s government scrapped, and giving proper contracts to delivery workers who currently have no job protection and do not pay into the system. We could also hike wages and thereby increase pension contributions.  

The vast majority of the French are opposed to this reform. It should be cancelled, full stop. 

This article was translated from the original in French.

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‘Not just about pensions’: French protesters see threat to social justice in Macron’s reform

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Huge crowds marched across France on Tuesday in a new round of protests against President Emmanuel Macron’s plan to raise the retirement age, signalling the opposition’s success in framing the pension debate as part of a broader battle against an economic platform they perceive as unfair.

Though police and union figures differed, all agreed the number of demonstrators had increased compared to a first round of protests on January 19, piling pressure on a government that is struggling to convince voters of the need for a pension overhaul that includes raising the legal retirement age from 62 to 64.

In Paris, where an estimated half a million people took to the streets, tens of thousands of marchers were still waiting to set off as daylight faded on the sprawling place d’Italie, several hours after the event kicked off. Reflecting the extent of opposition to the reform, the mass rally included both veteran unionists and novices, young and old, including some who said they had never attended a protest before.

“I never used to protest, but this time the government is pushing too far,” said 58-year-old Geraldine, a lab technician at the nearby Pitié-Salpetrière hospital, who declined to give her full name.

“I’ve worked 38 years already, [Covid] pandemic included, and I’m absolutely exhausted,” she said. “It’s not just two more years that the government wants us to work. It’s two more years under ever worsening conditions – and at an age when most of us are no longer fit for the job.”


People like Geraldine, who got her first full-time job aged 20 and later worked part-time to raise her daughter, have most to lose from the proposed reform, which would require them to work longer to qualify for a full pension.

So do unskilled workers like Ayed, a stock controller at a local supermarket who wore the red vest of the Force Ouvrière trade union as he marched through Paris. “I’m 42 and my back is already bust from carrying heavy loads all day long – how am I supposed to keep going in 20 years’ time?” he asked.

>> ‘I can’t take any more’: Working-class French lament Macron’s push to raise retirement age

The government has signalled there is wiggle room on some measures as parliamentary committees start examining the draft law this week. But promises to improve conditions for people who started working very young, or for mothers who interrupted their careers to look after children, have failed to offset the perception of a reform that hurts the vulnerable most.

Talk of the text’s gender imbalance has gained particular traction, not least since one of Macron’s own ministers admitted last week that it would “leave women a little penalised” – in one of several PR blunders that have marred the government’s attempts to promote its increasingly unpopular plan.

“We always knew women would get screwed – but the fact that they should admit it so casually, is simply baffling,” said 16-year-old Mia outside her high school in Paris, where students showed up at 6 o’clock in the morning hoping to blockade the building – only to find that riot police had got there first.

Elsewhere, students did succeed in occupying a handful of schools and university buildings, while a nationwide strike backed by all of France’s key unions brought disruption to public transport and oil refineries, with more strike action expected in the days and weeks to come.

‘Unnecessary and unfair’

Macron has staked his reformist credentials on passage of his flagship pension overhaul, which polls say around two thirds of the French now oppose – a figure that has risen steadily in recent weeks.

“The more French people find out about the reform, the less they support it,” Frederic Dabi, a prominent pollster at the Ifop institute, told AFP. “This is not good at all for the government.”

While Macron and his government insist on the cost-cutting merits of their proposed reform, their opponents have succeeded in framing the debate in much larger terms, focusing on the questions of how wealth is distributed under Macron, and whether the poorest will carry the burden of his proposals.

“The pension plan is both regressive in terms of quality of life and economically unfair – meaning it is fundamentally at odds with our vision,” argued Sophia Chikirou, a lawmaker from the left-wing France Unbowed (LFI) party, at the rally in Paris.

As 21-year-old protester Lalie Geffriaud put it, “It’s not just about pension reform – it’s about a broader opposition to the direction this country is taking.”

>> Will strikes force Macron to back down over French pension reforms?

The government says its proposals are necessary to keep the pension system solvent as the life expectancy of the French has grown and birth rates have declined. But unions and left-wing parties want big companies or wealthier households to pitch in more to balance the pension budget instead.

Adding to the government’s woes, its main argument was undercut earlier this month when the country’s independent Pension Advisory Council told parliament that “pension spending is not out of control – it’s relatively contained”. The assessment only strengthened a widely held belief that the reform demands needless sacrifices of the French, at a time when they are grappling with an inflation crisis and still recovering from the Covid pandemic.

“This reform is entirely unnecessary – on top of being unfair,” said retired scientist Mireille Cuniot, 69, rallying on Tuesday with dozens of other women dressed as Rosie the Riveter in her iconic blue overalls.

She added: “It’s a reform that changes nothing for the highest earners and weighs entirely on the more vulnerable – you couldn’t make it any more unfair!”

Protesters dressed as feminist icon Rosie the Riveter at the rally in Paris.
Protesters dressed as feminist icon Rosie the Riveter at the rally in Paris. © Benjamin Dodman, FRANCE 24

Talk of the reform’s perceived inequity was a recurrent theme at the protest, which drew from well beyond the ranks of the left.

“It’s the unfairness that is most shocking; it’s always the working classes who end up paying most,” said primary school teacher Eric Schwab, who described himself as leaning to the centre-right. He held up a banner that read, “I refuse to waste my life trying to earn a living”.

Schwab took issue with the government’s habit of comparing France’s legal retirement age – one of the lowest in Europe – with that of its neighbours, noting that existing rules already require many French workers to retire well past the age of 62 in order to qualify for a full pension.

“They only compare us with other countries when it suits them,” he said. “What they won’t acknowledge, is that Germans who do the same job as me earn twice as much and with classes half the size.”

The proposed changes are about more than raising the retirement age, Schwab added, denouncing an “ultra-liberal” economic platform stacked in favour of the rich.

“After the financial crisis in 2008, governments somehow found billions of euros to bail out the banks,” he said. “They know where to find the money when they need to – particularly when it’s our money they’re spending.”

Macron's critics accuse him of pushing the same neoliberal agenda as the former British prime minister, Margaret Thatcher.
Macron’s critics accuse him of pushing the same neoliberal agenda as the former British prime minister, Margaret Thatcher. © Benjamin Dodman, FRANCE 24

 

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Will strikes force Macron to back down over France pension reforms?

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France is seeing a wave of strikes against Emmanuel Macron’s pension reforms on Thursday, as trains, flights, schools and even hospitals will be disrupted. Polls show a majority of the French oppose the president’s measures – and analysts say maintaining public support of strikes will be crucial to unions’ chances of forcing a U-turn. 

It is the moment everyone saw coming – the moment after Macron pushed ahead with pension reforms and France sees the huge industrial action it is (in)famous for.

The last time Macron wanted to change the pensions system, during the winter of 2019-2020, France saw its biggest strikes since 1968. Covid soon made that upheaval seem quaint, and prompted Macron to shelve his plans. But Macron was re-elected in April 2022 after promising to re-introduce these reforms, then put them to parliament earlier this month. And now the opposition appears to be even bigger than before: France’s biggest and most moderate major union, the CFDT, has joined the strike action after declining to act the previous time.

“Projections show there’ll be a huge number of people taking to the streets; 1 million to 1.5 million people, which the strike movement will be very pleased with,” noted Arnaud Benedetti, editor-in-chief of specialist French politics publication Revue politique et parlementaire.

‘They don’t want to change it’

Many polls have shown a majority of French oppose Macron’s proposals. The two main planks of the reform both go down badly: 66 percent oppose raising the retirement age from 62 to 64, while 60 percent oppose increasing the length of time paying into the system required for a full pension to 43 years, according to a survey by OpinionWay for Les Échos and Radio Classique.

“A lot of the public opposition comes from this persistent idea of a French model that has to be defended,” explained Paul Smith, a professor of French politics at Nottingham University. “It’s very difficult for the Macron government to get over that and point out that the retirement age is currently higher everywhere else – it doesn’t work because people think this is the French model, the French exception, and they don’t want to change it.”

“As well as the French attachment to the current system, the Macron government has made communication errors in trying to sell the reforms – inconsistencies in their justifications,” Benedetti added. “To start with, Macron said he was opposed to lengthening the amount of time people have to work, and of course changed his position on this. Then the government tried to legitimise the reforms by saying it would free up money for other parts of the public sector like education, before they switched to saying they’re needed to make the pensions system sustainable and thereby save it.”

The unions are hoping to pull off a repeat of what happened in 1995, when prolonged disruptive industrial action combined with broad public support to force then-president Jacques Chirac’s government to ditch pension reforms.

“The unions won in ’95 because they mobilised with massive public sympathy, and they know they need to do the same thing again if they want to win,” Smith put it.

So the big question is whether a majority of the French public would remain on the unions’ side during a protracted standoff with Macron’s government. The two other big factors determining which side will win, Benedetti noted, are “whether the union members have the means to carry on striking during a long standoff and the impact of the strikes on parliamentary politics”.

Macron lost his parliamentary majority in the legislative elections in June – complicating the bill’s passage. Luckily for Macron, France’s traditional conservative party Les Républicains (LR) have the numbers to get the bill through the National Assembly, and the party leadership is in favour.

This was by no means a given, however, seeing as many LR politicians are keen to emphasise their distinctiveness from Macron as he occupies their historic territory on the centre-right of the political spectrum – while LR’s recently elected hard-right leader Eric Ciotti sees himself as closer to far-right ex-presidential candidate Eric Zemmour than he is to Macron.

Nevertheless, LR and its ancestor parties under the likes of Chirac have longed envisaged reforming France’s pensions system in similar ways to Macron. President of the Senate Gérard Larcher, one of LR’s most influential grandees, has been particularly enthusiastic about Macron’s pension reforms – declaring that “even though they are unpopular, these reforms are essential”. Then Ciotti and his lieutenants met Macron’s Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne last week and said they were “listened to” after making demands in exchange for a deal, notably to fix the minimum monthly pension at €1,200. 

“Ciotti is mercurial, and many LR MPs don’t want to look too ‘Macron-compatible’, as they say,” Smith pointed out. “But the bottom line is that pensions reform is something they’ve historically supported, while there’s a general sense that giving Macron the support he needs makes them look important again instead of going up in smoke. And the Républicains in the Senate have been putting pressure on Républicains in the National Assembly to support the compromise struck with Borne. Gérard Larcher is the key figure here.” 

Public opinion to ‘determine’ MPs’ stances 

That said, LR support for the pension reforms is not guaranteed, especially if strikes stretch on for months and maintain broad public support. In the coming months, “LR behaviour will be determined by public opinion and what happens on the street”, Benedetti pointed out.

It is not just LR MPs Macron needs to keep onside. The president’s parliamentary bloc Ensemble owes its name to the French word for “together” – but in reality it is a heterogenous group of MPs ranging from the social democratic left to the neoliberal right. Several MPs on Ensemble’s left wing are sceptical of Macron’s pension reforms. One of the most prominent is Barbara Pompili, Macron’s environment minister from 2020 to 2022, who told BFMTV on Monday that she “couldn’t vote for the reforms at this stage”, saying that increasing the retirement age risks creating “social injustices”.

“Even now, it’s not at all sure that Macron can rely on Ensemble as the biggest party in the National Assembly to help get the reforms through,” Benedetti observed. “And as is the case for LR MPs and others, public opinion and the course of the strikes will determine the behaviour of those in Macron’s party.” 

The National Assembly is scheduled to start debating the pensions reform bill on February 6. Then the lower chamber and the Senate have until March 26 to both vote on it. If parliament rejects the legislation, Macron can always use Article 49.3, the Fifth Republic’s most controversial constitutional instrument. This allows the presidency to pass legislation without a parliamentary vote – although MPs can respond with a vote of no confidence, which if successful would shoot down the bill and the government with it, prompting fresh legislative elections. So far Borne has used it 10 times but over far less contentious matters.

“No president wants to use Article 49.3 unless they really have to,” Smith said. However, if Macron does deploy it, opposition MPs may well be reluctant to trigger new parliamentary polls: “Elections are what politicians hate most, because they’re unknowable.”

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