The French staged protests against pension reform

More than 1 million people took part in demonstrations against the pension reform proposed by President Emmanuel Macron across France. The proposed measure assumes that now working citizens will retire not at 62, but at 64. Few people will like such a proposal, so the French decided to be outraged.

The Ministry of the Interior said 1.12 million people protested across the country on Thursday, January 19, 80,000 of whom took part in the largest rally in Paris. The unions said the figure was actually even higher.

Police made arrests in the center of Paris early in the day amid clashes with law enforcement officers. It was reported that 15 people were arrested before the Paris march and 15 during it for offenses such as carrying illegal weapons or throwing projectiles. Shopkeepers around the capital’s Republic Square boarded up shop windows and storefronts after authorities warned of potential vandalism.

Local and regional trains have all but come to a halt, and public transport in cities including Paris has been “heavily disrupted”, according to transport workers.

Many elementary schools also closed for one day. Authorities estimate that 40% of primary school teachers and more than 30% of secondary school teachers have gone on strike. Trade unions are again claiming a higher figure – at the level of 70%.

Some high school students blocked the lyceums on Thursday morning as the government fears young people in schools and universities could lead their own protests.

Public radio and television have also been interrupted, and some theaters and museums have been closed. Some refinery supplies have been blocked and energy production has been reduced.

The 24-hour strike and protests in 200 cities were the first major test for Macron since his re-election last spring against his far-right rival Marine Le Pen.

The current president has made the issue of raising the retirement age at the forefront, intending thereby to revise the social model of France and the social security system. Macron insists he will deliver on his key campaign promise to change the French pension system – to raise the retirement age for most people from 62 to 64 and to extend the time to contribute so that people can receive full pension contributions. Opinion polls have shown that the majority of French people oppose these proposals and consider them unfair, even if many agree that change is needed.

At the Franco-Spanish summit in Barcelona (January 19), Macron defended what he called “just and responsible reform” and expressed his hope that the protests would not escalate into violence. By the way, in Spain, on the day of the arrival of the French leader, protests were also held by supporters of the independence of Spanish Catalonia.

As noted by The Guardian, the main question for Macron and the government is whether the unions, united in a rare historical united front for a 24-hour strike, can turn public anger into a broader social protest movement and continue to speak.

Macron remains conscious of the legacy of the anti-government Yellow Vests protest movement that erupted from scratch in 2018 without union involvement and took the government by surprise. It’s not clear if anger over changes to pensions and the cost of living could fuel the current protests. In fact, in 2019, Macron’s previous attempt to change pensions was met by the longest rail strike in France since May 1968, and those plans to revise the pension issue were put on hold during the COVID pandemic.

The mood of the protesters themselves is also important. At a Paris demonstration, Nathalie Ramos, 48, a member of the left-wing CGT union at the city’s Picasso Museum, said: “A strike always means the government has failed, we hope they listen to that.”

Frederic Dortomb, a 52-year-old private insurance worker, said: “Macron claims these pension changes were in his manifesto. But most people didn’t vote for Macron for that reason, they voted to keep Le Pen out. Macron said he would consider his manifesto in that light, but he didn’t. These pension decisions are poorly thought out without sufficient consultation.”

A high school teacher in the south of Paris shared her point of view: “Teaching is exhausting physically and mentally, our salaries have actually been reduced due to inflation, and now we are worried that we will get old and sick before we can stop working.”

The head of the CGT union, Philippe Martinez, told the Public Senat broadcaster that the planned change in pensions “unifies the general discontent” with the government. He said that the rare united front among workers’ representatives showed that the problem was very serious. He called the pension changes “unfair, dogmatic and ideological”.

Note that pension changes still have to go through parliament, where Macron’s centrist group has lost an absolute majority. The government hopes to pass the bill quickly, with the support of lawmakers from the right-wing Les Républicains (Republicans) party.

The government says it wants to control government spending. “This reform is necessary and just,” Labor Minister Olivier Dussaud said in an interview with LCI TV.

The Labor Department estimates that pushing back the retirement age by two years and extending the payment period will generate an additional €17.7 billion in pension contributions, allowing the system to break even by 2027. Unions still insist that ordinary workers will suffer and that the changes were unfair.