Trade unions protest against pension reforms in France (6 April 2023) (Photo: Thomas Samson/AFP)
Demonstrators again took to the streets in France on Thursday over pres. Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform after recent talks between the government and trade unions stalled.
Macron, currently on a visit to China, is experiencing the biggest challenge of his second term in office with the pension reforms. This includes raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 and requiring people to work longer before they can receive a full payout.
All sides in the case are currently awaiting a verdict on April 14 on the validity of the reform by France’s constitutional council. This council has the power to scrap some or even all legislation.
Although the council members will make a decision based on a strict interpretation of the law, unions want to show that the protesters are still motivated.
“We are in the middle of a social crisis, a democratic crisis,” Laurent Berger, head of the CFDT trade union told RTL radio. “This is a problem that must be solved by the president.”
Demonstrations were held across the country and people held up placards or waved flags from Nantes in the west to the southern coastal cities of Montpellier and Marseille.
“We haven’t given up yet and we don’t intend to give up either,” said 50-year-old civil servant Davy Chretien as he protested in Marseille.
There are signs that the two and a half month long protest movement is starting to lose momentum and unions hope that there will be a large turnout on the 11th day of action since January.
Many of the protests turned violent when Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne exercised controversial executive power on March 16 to steamroll the bill through parliament without a vote.
Striking railway workers stormed through the former headquarters of Credit Lyonnais bank in Paris on Thursday – a famous building where companies such as BlackRock investments are now located.
France’s eight major unions said a meeting with Borne was a “failure” when she refused to discuss the retirement age.
It was the first conversation of its kind since the government introduced the controversial bill in January.
Macron is in China for the rest of the week.
A total of 1.2 million people protested against the reform on 7 March.
