Paris: After triggering violent protests spanning months, French President Emmanuel Macron’s controversial pension reform received the Constitutional Council’s approval late on Friday and can now be made into a law. The French government has announced that the new law will come into force from September this year.
The legislation, which hikes the age at which one can draw a full pension to 64 from 62, has led to massive nationwide protests in France over the last few months.
However, in what will be a huge relief to Macron and his government, the Constitutional Council gave it the nod with just a few minor changes.
Labour Minister Olivier Dussopt said the law would enter into force on September 1 as initially planned, brushing off requests by unions not to promulgate it in the face of huge public opposition.
Opinion polls showed a vast majority oppose the reform, as well as the fact that the government invoked Article 49.3 of the Constitution allowing it to pass the bill without a final vote in parliament that it might have lost.
Protesters gathered outside Paris City Hall, holding banners reading “climate of anger” and “no end to the strikes until the reform is pulled” when the Council’s verdict was announced.
“We just hope we’ll see a response like the one that followed the 49.3, that the deep anger of the people, workers and students, resurfaces, and that people get back out on the streets,” said unionised train diver Farid Boukhenfer at the Paris rally.
The Council said the government’s actions were in line with the constitution and approved raising the legal retirement age, with only peripheral measures meant to boost employment for older workers struck down on the grounds that they did not belong in this legislation.
Macron and his government hope such an outcome would discourage further trade union-led protests, which have at times turned violent.
“The country must continue to move forward, work, and face the challenges that await us,” Macron said earlier this week.
Hardline unions and the opposition have warned they will not back down. The opposition has tabled another bid for a referendum, which should be reviewed by the Council in early May.
Political observers say the widespread discontent over the government’s reform could have longer-term repercussions, including a possible boost for the far right.
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen wrote on Twitter that “the political fate of the pension reform is not sealed,” urging voters to back those who oppose it in the next election so that they can scrap it.
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