French march, strike in latest pension protests

But as new law takes hold, actions seem to be waning

PARIS — Street demonstrations and transport strikes disrupted France again Tuesday as another day of protests against a widely unpopular pension overhaul took place, in what appeared to be a last-ditch effort to pressure authorities into scrapping the changes.

Tuesday’s protest, the 14th day of nationwide demonstrations since January, reflected the lingering anger at the government’s decision to raise the legal retirement age to 64 from 62 — a move that put France on edge and led to the biggest political threat in President Emmanuel Macron’s second term.

But after months of exceptionally large protests that have failed to budge Macron, and with key parts of the overhaul already enshrined in law, opponents of the reform acknowledge the chances of turning the tide now are slim and that Tuesday’s actions may be a last stand.

“The game is about to end whether we like it or not,” Laurent Berger, the leader of the French Democratic Confederation of Labor, the largest union in France, said Tuesday as he was getting ready for the march in Paris.

Still, Berger added the persistence of the protests, even after the overhaul became law, was a sign of lingering “anger and resentment” that may have lasting consequences for Macron’s political fortunes.

From Calais in the north to Nice in the south, tens of thousands of demonstrators marched Tuesday to protest against the pension changes, while strikes forced Paris Orly Airport to cancel one-third of its flights and slightly disrupted the Paris subway network.

In Paris and other cities, protesters briefly clashed with riot police who fired tear gas, but the number of incidents was far below previous days.

The number of demonstrators was nowhere near the million who took to the streets in March, a sign that the protest movement, exhausted by weeks of unsuccessful marches, is now running out of steam. In Paris, a fairly sparse and calm crowd snaked along the Left Bank, in stark contrast to the raucous parade that shook the capital just a month ago.

“Clearly, there’s some exhaustion,” said Éric Agrikoliansky, a 56-year-old teacher who was browsing at a bookstall while waiting to join the march as small groups of protesters walked past him, chatting but hardly chanting any slogans. “Everybody seems to think that it’s the end.”

Macron has argued that France’s pension system, which is based on payroll taxes, is financially unsustainable because retirees supported by active workers are living longer. To balance the system, his government decided to make people work longer by raising the legal age when they can start collecting a pension.

“We have a deficit problem, and we have to plug it,” Macron said in a televised interview last month. “I stand by this reform.”

But opponents say Macron has exaggerated the threat of projected deficits and has refused to consider other ways to balance the system, such as increasing worker payroll taxes.

Faced with widespread opposition in the streets and in parliament, the government pushed through the overhaul using a constitutional provision that avoided a full parliamentary vote.

The move angered opponents who felt that they were not being listened to. What began with peaceful marches that drew millions into the streets spawned some “wild protests” marked by heavy vandalism and pan-beating demonstrations meant to express people’s discontent and frustration.