The project of the president of France, Emmanuel Macronto raise the pension age from 62 to 64 years It has hundreds of thousands of people in the streets opposing that reform and declaring a strike.
The tension confronts a citizenry that considers raising the age unfair and a government that defends that it is the only way to avoid a future deficit in the pension fund.
On the other hand, it is known that this pension reform is a campaign promise by Macron in his re-election in April 2022. His initial intention was to raise it to 65 years, but he backed down at that point and brought forward to 2027 the requirement to contribute 43 years to collect a full pension.
Given the social discontent that the social mobilizations have generated, the French president has said that this reform is “fair and responsible” and asked that the demonstrations take place “without disorder, violence or destruction.”
In this sense, an Ipsos survey reflects the controversy of this move by Emmanuel Macron, because although the 81%_of the French consider a reform necessary61% reject the Government’s proposal and 58% support the strike movement that the trade union movements have called.
For his part, the leader of the FO union, Frédéric Souillot, warned that “a tough conflict awaits them”, recalling the opposition to the pension reform that raised the retirement age from 60 to 62 in 2010, which was nevertheless approved.
“The government has already lost a battle: that of convincing the people,” said leftist leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
This government project, however, faces opposition from leftist parties and those of the far-right opposition.
According to the unions, 70% of primary school teachers participate in the strike and 65% of secondary school teachers. Although the Ministry of Education lowers these calculations to 42.35% and 34.66%, respectively.
Likewise, the CGT union announced that the majority of refineries registered between 70% and 100% of personnel on strike, which –along with future strikes– arouses fear of a fuel shortage, like the one experienced in October and which forced the government to intervene.
For now, following these mobilizations in rejection of the project, the workers’ unions will decide how to continue and, for their part, the government must approve its final project on Monday, before its debate in the parliament of that country, which might last until end of March.
