France experiences last protests before key decision on pension reform

The French began demonstrating again on Thursday against Liberal President Emmanuel Macron’s unpopular pension reform, in a last-ditch push a day before the decisive decision by the Constitutional Council.

“We want to put pressure on them, although we know that the Constitutional Council will not go in our favor”, said Hervé Bordereau, 57, during the blockade of an incinerator plant near Paris.

After registering protests in the morning, the authorities prohibited any demonstration in front of the headquarters of the institution near the Louvre museum as of Thursday night.

The unions and a majority of the French, according to polls, want the government to backtrack on delaying the retirement age from 62 to 64 years by 2030 and to advance to 2027 the requirement to contribute 43 years, and not 42, to collect a full pension.

But Macron refuses. “The country must keep moving forward”, he said on Wednesday from Amsterdam, where he announced that he will propose a meeting with the social actors to see how to “move forward” regardless of the decision of the Constitutional Council.

However, the task does not seem easy. The social conflict is entrenched and the relationship has become tense in recent weeks with union leaders, especially with the moderate Laurent Berger, of the French Democratic Labor Confederation (CFDT).

Beyond the reform that he wants to see in force in the coming months, the 45-year-old president is risking being able to apply his program during his second term until 2027.

Symbol of the importance he attaches to it, Macron decided on March 16 to impose his reform by decree, fearing he would lose the vote in Parliament where he lacks an absolute majority, which led to a radicalization of the protests.

Although the mobilization came to count on March 7 with between 1.28 million protesters, according to the police, and 3.5 million, for the CGT union, the authorities expect between 400,000 and 600,000 this Thursday, on the twelfth day.

The strike in key sectors such as transport and energy is also narrower, although Paris garbage collectors plan to resume their walkout, after a previous three-week strike left up to 10,000 tons of rubbish piling up on the streets.

High schools and universities in France woke up this Thursday with blockades and road access to several western cities such as Caen, Brest and Rennes registered disturbances from protesters.

Waiting for the “wise”

The unions warned that the open social conflict with the pension reform caused a “democratic crisis” and benefited the far-right Marine Le Pen, who is rising in the polls with her silent opposition.

In this context, the nine “wise men” of the Constitutional must on Friday afternoon rule on the validity of the reform and on a request for a referendum on the retirement age requested by the left opposition.

Observers consider a total annulment of the reform unlikely and rather advocate the annulment of parts of it which, depending on which ones and their scope, could reinforce the unions’ demand for a withdrawal of the law.

The go-ahead for the referendum could redirect the mobilization, since its first challenge would be to collect the 4.87 million signatures necessary for it to be held, although the leader of the General Confederation of Labor (CGT), Sophie Binet, indicated this Thursday that the demonstrations will continue .

Among the hypotheses studied by the unions after the decision of the Constitutional Council are demonstrations for May 1, on the occasion of International Workers’ Day, and even the call for a giant march in Paris.

“We will have to wait and see what happens tomorrowPhilippe Simon, a 56-year-old trade unionist from the National Union of Autonomous Trade Unions (UNSA), told AFP during a blockade at the entrance to a logistics park in Rennes, and who said he was willing.to go to paris” to manifest.

France is one of the European countries where the retirement age is lower, without the schemes being completely comparable. The government assures that its reform seeks to avoid a future deficit in the pension fund.