The French government will announce proposals to raise the retirement age and overhaul the pension system on Tuesday, in a potentially explosive reform that threatens President Emmanuel Macron.
Asserting that France “needs to work more”, Macron has pushed for the pension system to be overhauled since coming to power in 2017.
Although he canceled his first attempt in 2020 in the face of protests and the Covid-19 pandemic, the 45-year-old centrist made the issue central to his successful re-election campaign last year.
As well as simplifying the system and removing privileges enjoyed by workers in some sectors, the reform will increase the retirement age from 62 – most likely to 64.
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It will also increase the number of years a person must have worked to qualify for a full pension.
“Overall, the idea of reform is not supported by the public, although some may understand that we live longer, so we have to work longer,” said Bruno Cautres, a political expert at Sciences Po University in Paris. , told AFP.
In the northeastern city of Lille, 41-year-old Olivier Rohas told AFP that retiring later would “destroy our quality of life” – although he admitted he had to “pay for our pension” somehow.
– Yellow Vest II? –
Trade unions and most opposition parties see this as a struggle against the French social system and as a means of undermining Macron.
The former investment banker has made retirement his second priority despite losing his parliamentary majority in legislative elections in June.
“If Emmanuel Macron wants to make the mother of reform … for us it will be the mother of war,” warned the head of the far-left FO union, Frederic Souillot, at the weekend.
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Protests and street strikes appear inevitable, with Macron’s last-ditch efforts resulting in the longest public transport shutdown in Paris in three decades.
“The government is really scared,” said Mathilde Panot, the parliamentary leader of the French party Unbowed (LFI).
Ministers’ bigger fear is a repeat of the spontaneous protests of 2018, when people wearing neon yellow safety jackets began blocking roads, sparking the “Yellow Vest” uprising.
The often violent demonstrations have struck fear into the heart of the government, prompting Macron to promise a softer, less authoritarian style of government.
“I don’t see another ‘Yellow Vest’ crisis happening,” Cautres told AFP, although he said the national mood was one of “pessimism, fatalism and anger” and a sense that “we are in a crisis”.
Few in the government have banks in the country agreeing to changes that are generally unpopular but considered inevitable, especially since most of France’s neighbors have reached retirement age of 65 or more.
“There is a form of fatalism,” a Macron aide told AFP recently on condition of anonymity. “We’re going to get it done and people know it.”
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The government has also scrapped some proposals, with the retirement age possibly being 64 instead of the 65 proposed by Macron.
There is also a proposal to increase the minimum pension to 1,200 euros ($1,280) a month and a larger provision for those who do not work continuously, such as parents who take a career break to care for children.
– ‘President Macron of the rich’ –
Critics see the changes as retrograde and unnecessary, although official forecasts show the system in deep deficit in the coming decades due to an aging population.
“In 2023, will Emmanuel Macron step out of the era and shine as the president of the rich?” Left-wing French economist and author Thomas Piketty asked in Le Monde newspaper on Sunday.
He said that the reforms could save the country up to 20 billion euros a year, but “the problem is that these 20 billion will burden the poorest” over a longer career.
As well as grappling with strikes and protests, Macron’s government has also had to scrap deals for support in a tumultuous parliament.
Also read: Macron seeks to save power after French election
Negotiations are underway with the right-wing Republican party.
Without their support, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne would have to use the constitutional power known as article 49.3 which allows her to pass laws without a vote – at the risk of a no-confidence motion that would bring down the government.
Borne will unveil the outlines of the proposed law at 17:30 (1630 GMT) and will speak on French television in the evening.
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