France is preparing for violent demonstrations, the government will present its pension reform on Tuesday, for which the retirement age is expected to be lowered to 64 years, a will of President Macron, who is unanimously opposed in the trade union world.
“If Emmanuel Macron wants to make it his mother of reforms for us (…), it will be the mother of battles,” warns the head of the Force Ouvrière (FO) union, Frédéric Souillot, who, like everyone else, opposes this reform represents organizations unions and political opposition, apart from the more conciliatory right.
AFP
Frédéric Soullot from the FO union
France has undergone a series of major reforms to its pension systems over the past 30 years to respond to population aging and the financial deterioration of its funds.
Almost every time, the announced increase in working hours has caused social unrest in a country where the employment rate of seniors is also particularly low.
“The only lever we have is to work longer,” stressed the French President.
Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne will present the reform to Parliament on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. local time after questions to the government.
She could, according to several of her interlocutors, propose moving the legal exit age to 64 instead of the current 62, after 65 has been considered.
This shift would be associated with an acceleration of the extension of the contribution period, which would increase to 43 years ahead of the 2035 horizon set by a previous reform.
The board hopes to reduce spending by 2030. He would be willing to raise the minimum pension for all pensioners to 1,200 euros.
Measuring the retirement age remains very unpopular in France, one of the European countries where the retirement age remains the lowest, especially when compared to its German, Italian or Spanish neighbours.
According to a poll by Ifop-Fiducial, more than two-thirds of French people (68%) are against moving to 64.
In the streets, “the debate will take place” in the face of “ideological”, “anti-social” reform and the “servicing of a privileged class”, affirms the new leader of the Greens, Marine Tondelier.
For the boss of the powerful CGT union, Philippe Martinez, “with this reform we are going back to what our elders knew, which is that after work it’s the cemetery”.
Across the political spectrum, opposition figures from the left, the far left and the far right have already spoken out against what has been dubbed “unfair” reform.
The French government is therefore hoping to rally around the elected representatives of the moderate right (Les Républicains-LR), whose leader Éric Ciotti, on the contrary, has already declared that he is ready “to vote for a fair reform”.
AFP
Eric Ciotti of the Republican Party
An LR vote could avoid the use of 49.3, this device accused of being undemocratic and already used a dozen times under Emmanuel Macron’s second term since his party lost majority in the National Assembly, allowing the executive branch to pass a law without a vote .
The text will be examined by the Council of Ministers on January 23, but the unions, which meet on Tuesday evening, plan to mobilize beforehand, while the left-wing coalition NUPES holds rallies on January 10 and 17 and LFI (radical left) demonstrates on January 21.
The bill has to be passed in the National Assembly committee from January 30th and in the plenary chamber on February 6th.
The head of the CGT, Philippe Martinez, is wry about the executive’s “feat” that has brought the unions back together for the first time in 12 years.
“Trade unions and politicians will be completely united in this fight,” promised LFI coordinator Manuel Bompard on BFMTV.
On Saturday, the “yellow vests”, whose rallies were staged on Rue Emmanuel Macron for more than a year during his first term in office, took to the pavement again.
According to the Interior Ministry, only 4,700 people were present at this first meeting, including 2,000 in Paris.