Macron’s pension reform plan moves forward despite strikes
Unions dismiss president’s changes as a ‘denial of democracy’
PARIS Thousands of people angered over French President Emmanuel Macron’s plan to raise the retirement age joined a national strike on Wednesday as a committee of lawmakers advanced the proposal.
It remains to be seen whether Macron can command a parliamentary majority for his plan to raise the age from 62 to 64 so workers can pay more money into the system. If not, he could risk imposing the changes unilaterally. The plan also would deny a full pension to anyone who retires at 64 without having worked for 43 years — short of that, they’d have to wait until 67.
Macron has promoted the changes as central to his vision for making the French economy more competitive. Unions were combative Wednesday, calling on lawmakers to vote against the plan and denouncing the government’s legal shortcuts to move the bill forward as a “denial of democracy.”
Economic challenges have prompted widespread unrest across Western Europe. In Britain on Wednesday, teachers, junior doctors and public transport staff were striking for higher wages to match rising prices. And Spain’s left-wing government joined with labour unions to announce a “historic” deal to save its pension system by raising social security costs for higher wage earners.
Spain’s solution is exactly what French unions would like, but Macron has refused to raise taxes, saying it would make the economy less competitive. Something must be done, the president has argued, to sustain France’s current levels of pension payments with the retiree population expected to grow from 16 to 21 million by 2050.
Ten days into a sanitation workers’ strike, Paris was awash in piles of rancid rubbish, which police ordered cleared out along the march route after troublemakers used garbage to start fires or throw trash at police in recent demonstrations.
The committee of seven senators and seven National Assembly lawmakers agreed on the final text Wednesday in a closed-door meeting, and a conservative Senate majority is expected to approve it as early as Thursday.
Train drivers, school teachers, dock workers, oil refinery workers and others joined garbage collectors in walking off their jobs on Wednesday.