A key day for pension reform in France is approaching and the protests are back

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After weeks of strikes and protests, President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform will come to a head this week, as France’s highest constitutional body decides on Friday whether to comply with the law or nullify it in whole or in part.

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Thousands of French are preparing to march again this Thursday ahead of the resolution.

Full approval by the nine so-called ‘wise men’, led by Laurent Fabius, the leftist former prime minister, would pave the way for enactment of the law which was approved last month by an executive order, rather than a parliamentary vote. which Macron believed his government would lose.

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The president, now grappling with turmoil in his own administration over reform, is determined to move on. He thinks resistance will ease once the retirement age rises from 62 to 64, his advisers say.

"64 is No", reads the banner hanging on the

“64 is No”, reads the banner hanging on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, against the reform that leads to retirement at that age. Photo: REUTERS

The council of wise men could decide on Friday that the method of the decree, protected by article 49-3 of the Constitution, is not applicable to the reform and invalidate the legislation.

It could also nix other aspects of the reform, forcing Macron to amend or abandon a measure he provoked its biggest political storm since the uprising of the yellow vests movement five years ago.

The president of the Constitutional Council is a man of experience. Fabius was François Mitterrand’s prime minister and then French chancellor. It will be article 7, which has become article 10, sets the retirement age at 64to be decided by the Council.

The Constitutional Council almost never declares absolute censure, but there are elements in the reform debate that it will surely address: the lack of clarity and sincerity in parliamentary debates.

A protest against the pension reform in Paris, late March.  Photo: REUTERS

A protest against the pension reform in Paris, late March. Photo: REUTERS

More pressure on Emmanuel Macron

With nearly 70% of the country opposed to the changes and angry at the method being used to implement them, trade unions and the far-right and left-wing parliamentary opposition say will continue to campaign to force Macron to abandon the legislationeven as the council says the pension bill is constitutional.

“We must continue to mobilize to the end, until the government understands that there is no other way out than to withdraw this reform,” said Sophie Binet, leader of the left-wing militant union CGT. “We can’t move on until this reform is repealed.”

Macron’s determination to face the fierce and widespread public rejection at the new retirement age it has led naysayers to say it has plunged the country into turmoil.

Laurent Berger, leader of the moderate trade union CFDT, the largest in the country, said Macron had plunged France “into a political crisis”.

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Source: Clarin

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