The Constitutional Council on Friday endorsed the postponement of the retirement age from 62 to 64 by 2030 and the bringing forward to 2027 of the requirement to contribute for 43 years, not 42, to get a full pension. The reform was proclaimed this very early Saturday morning by President Emmanuel Macron.

“A law enacted at night, like thieves”, commented communist leader Fabien Roussel. “What a provocation! New bluff by Emmanuel Macron while the country is more broken than ever,” tweeted ecologist Marine Tondelier.

After the constitutional ruling, incidents were recorded in several cities such as Paris, where there were 138 prisoners.

Rennes was again the scene of clashes on Saturday between security forces and participants in a march, from which a group broke away and destroyed a bank branch and the entrance to a four-star hotel, luxury cars set on fire and damaged and rubbish bins set on fire.

Protesters clash with police officers outside Place de la Republique to demonstrate against the French government’s pension reform hours after it came into effect on April 15, 2023 in Rennes, western France. Photo: AFP

On May 1, the trade union centers called for an “exceptional mobilization” on the occasion of the International Labor Dayto protest against the reform.

The four representative unions of the national railway company SNCF have announced “a day of expression of angerThursday.

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

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

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