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The French government’s plan to let people work two more years before they can retire on a full pension has sparked such anger that workers have shut down roads and railways in strikes that have paralyzed the country for weeks. Protests against raising the retirement age to 64 have led to clashes with police on streets of Paris overflowing with rubbish after a refuse collectors strike.
France has a lower minimum retirement age than many of its European neighbors. While the complexity of Europe’s pension systems makes comparisons difficult, changes in retirement ages have drawn less backlash in countries like the UK, where the statutory retirement age is expected to be raised from 66 to 68, or Germany, which is preparing to raise it from 65 to 67 .
Opponents of President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reforms, including influential unions, say the benefits of French workers have been hard-earned through struggles with successive governments and lie at the heart of the national identity.
France is gripped by protests over pension plans while Macron remains adamant
“Pensions are an integral part of the social contract in France that developed after World War II,” said Emile Chabal, a historian of 20th-century Europe. “And that social contract is, very simply put, if you work a certain number of years, then the state gives you a pension to live on.”
The government’s way of enforcing the law has only fueled protests after Macron used constitutional powers to avoid a vote in the lower house of parliament.
And it’s not just about retirement age. The slogans have spread to broader grievances that resonate beyond France, including skyrocketing inflation and social inequality.
France is far from the only European country to be rocked by strikes over wages and other demands this winter as nations grapple with the fallout from the pandemic and the war in Ukraine. But the pension crisis has spawned some of the worst unrest in years in France, which has a long tradition of workers’ action. This isn’t the first time the French have fought efforts to change the pension system.
“Any attempt to touch pensions over the last 30 or 40 years has led to very significant protests,” Chabal said.
An attempt by President Jacques Chirac’s government to overhaul the pension system in 1995 sparked strikes that blocked essential services and eventually resulted in the plan being scrapped.
“Everything kind of stopped for a long time,” said Heather Connolly, a professor at Grenoble Ecole de Management. In France, retirement is valued as “another life after our working lives,” she said.
French workers also filled the streets in 2010 when President Nicolas Sarkozy signed legislation raising the minimum retirement age from 60 to 62, despite backlash.
Macron tried to push for pension changes during his first term in 2019. A strike disrupted public transport for weeks, and the government later abandoned that attempt amid protests and the outbreak of the pandemic.
Macron defends raising retirement age as protests rock France
The new pension law, currently under consideration by the Constitutional Council, would gradually raise the minimum retirement age by 2030. Most people would have to be at least 64 years old and have paid certain Social Security contributions over the age of 43 before they can receive a full pension, with some exceptions, including for those with physically demanding jobs.
Macron says the plan is the best way to secure the future of a system that depends on working-age contributors as life expectancy increases. He has admitted it is unpopular but cast it as necessary to balance the books.
If retirement ages remain as they are, only 1.2 tax-paying workers would support each retiree by 2070, up from 1.7 in 2020, government data show.
Public pension spending is also a burden: According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, it was about 13.6 percent of France’s gross domestic product in 2021, compared to 11 percent in Spain and 10 percent in Germany.
Protesters have resisted depictions of being lazy, arguing the government should address deteriorating working conditions, which are leading to job dissatisfaction and a reluctance to work longer hours. France has one of the highest rates of burnout and accidents at work among European workers. Officials, criticized that older workers are often pushed out of work, have promised to look into working conditions.
Some say the focus on the age of 62 in the debate over France’s pension law is misleading: the country’s average retirement age is 64.5, according to OECD data.
“It’s a total misconception that all French people can retire at 62 because it’s based on a set of points you’ve built up over your career.” said Connolly.
Striking French workers deny they want a right to ‘laziness’
Critics also warn that the new plan will exacerbate inequality and disproportionately hit workers, who are more likely to start work earlier and die earlier than white-collar workers.
“Many people don’t make enough money to enjoy life and have been going to work every day for more than 40 years,” said Julia Perez, a 28-year-old who is joining the protests. “So I think retirement doesn’t mean the same thing for everyone, especially the rich and the poor.”
She said students marched alongside elderly protesters who were approaching retirement age out of concern for their own futures. “Inflation is very bad, salaries aren’t going up, so nothing really seems to motivate us to work very long hours.”
Rick Noack contributed to this report.