Pension reform advances in France; goes to parliament

The government of French President Emmanuel Macron approved yesterday the pension reform, against which more than a million people demonstrated last Thursday, which is now beginning its parliamentary process while the protests continue.

Despite the majority rejection of public opinion, the government reiterated its commitment to delay the retirement age from 62 to 64 by 2030 and bring forward to 2027 the increase in the years of contribution necessary to collect a full pension (from 42 to 43 ).

The age measures that we adopt are those that will allow us to balance the pension system in 2030”, Oliver Dussopt, Minister of Labour, Employment and Inclusion of France, defended at a press conference, who acknowledged a disagreement with the unions on these points.

The plenary session of the National Assembly will begin debating the bill on February 6, before it reaches the Senate. The left-wing parties and the far-right opposition have already announced that they will vote against it.

To approve it, the ruling party will possibly have the support of the conservative Republican party, who have been in favor of a reform, or resort to two controversial mechanisms to try to adopt it without submitting it to a vote.

“I want the government and legislators to be able to work on the text and adjust it,” said the liberal president last week, who nevertheless called for progress since there have already been changes since the delay at age 65 that he proposed in the electoral campaign.

This reform is one of the key measures that Macron promised during the campaign that led to his re-election in April 2022, after the Covid-19 pandemic forced him to bury a first attempt.

The eight main unions oppose and called a new day of protests for Tuesday, January 31 after the success of last Thursday. “We hope to do better,” the general secretary of the General Confederation of Labour, Philippe Martinez, told RTL, LCI and Le Figaro media.

According to figures from the Confederation, last week around 1.1 million people demonstrated throughout the country, of which 400,000 were in Paris, the capital.

According to a poll by the French Institute of Public Opinion, 68% of those surveyed were against the reform and 32% were in favor.

The retirement age in France is one of the lowest on the continent and, if the reform goes ahead, France would be close to 65 years in Spain and 67 in Denmark.

Marine Le Pen, a member of the National Assembly and a former presidential candidate, pointed out that the pension reform goes against people who work hard. “The reform goes against people who work hard. I say a very simple thing: the sooner you work and the harder you work, you should be able to retire sooner,” she mentioned in an interview.