Despite fierce protests in France, Emmanuel Macron rolls out his unpopular pension reform

French President Emmanuel Macron signed his unpopular pension reform early Saturday morning, a “provocation” for unions and the opposition after three months of social conflict which is called to continue.

“A law promulgated at night, like thieves”, reacted the communist leader, Fabien Roussel. “What a provocation! New bluff from Emmanuel Macron as the country has never been so fractured,” tweeted environmentalist Marine Tondelier.

This was announced by Macron’s office the head of state will address the country in a speech on Monday eveningto draw up, according to government spokesman Olivier Véran, an “assessment” of the three months of crisis, “in a logic of reconciliation”.

The French Constitutional Council validated on Friday afternoon the postponement of the retirement age from 62 to 64 by 2030 and the advancement to 2027 of the requirement of 43 contributory years, and not 42, to receive a full pension.

While this represents a “legal victory” for the 45-year-old liberal president, the press unanimously assessed on Saturday that it was a “Pyrrhic victory” and “a disaster for the nation”, all the more so when a large majority of French they opposed it, as seen on the streets of many cities in a series of protest demonstrations.

Unions had warned that France was experiencing a “democratic crisis” after the president decided in mid-March to adopt his unpopular law by decree, fearing losing the vote in Parliament which lacks an absolute majority.

That decision had radicalized the protests and, with its rapid promulgation, Macron “seems to enjoy adding fuel to the fire”, estimated the leader of the Unsa union, Laurent Escure, for whom “nothing good will come of it”.

Friday, after the sentence of the Constitutional Court, recorded incidents in various cities such as Paris, where there were 138 inmates. In Rennes (west), the door of a police station was set on fire and in Marseille (south-east), the train station was invaded.

union challenge

The trade union centers, the spearhead of the protest since January, already he called for an “exceptional mobilisation” on 1 Mayon International Workers’ Day, to protest against the reform.

The four unions representing the national railway company SNCF announced a “day of expression of anger” on Thursday.

And the CGT union also announced new days of strike and protests in all sectors on Thursday and 28 April.

The government’s goal is to quickly turn the page with new measures in sectors such as health or education, in full concern of the French for their purchasing power.

However, the latent social conflict is a brake if it is not resolved, and on the other hand the unions refuse to meet the government and Macron before May 1st.

Referendum on reform?

On May 3, the Constitutional Court must rule on a request for organization by the left opposition a referendum on limiting the retirement age to 62, after rejecting an initial similar request on Friday.

Beyond the reform, which he defended to avoid a deficit of 13,000 million euros (14,400 million dollars) in the pension fund by 2030, the president also risked being able to implement his program during his second term until 2027 .

In April 2022, Macron was re-elected with 58.5% of the vote against far-right Marine Le Pen. Aware that his victory was partly due to the cordon sanitaire against his rival, he vowed to rule differently and to unite the country.

But the pension reform episode showed the opposite. The law was adopted using controversial legal mechanisms which limited the debate in Parliament and without listening to the majority rejection of the population and the unions.

The popularity of the head of state has now dropped to less than 30% in the polls.

“There is an arrogance in Emmanuel Macron that feeds on social ignorance,” he told the newspaper. Liberation the historian Pierre Rosanvallon, for whom “the time of revolutions” or of “extreme right-wing populism” could now return.

Opinion polls show for the time being a deterioration of French confidence in institutions and a progression in the intention to vote for Marine Le Pen, despite her opposition to the reform being less active than that of the left.

By Toni Cerdá, AFP agency