A day following the unsuccessful talks between the French government and the unions over the pension dispute, tens of thousands across the country took to the streets to protest. Riots broke out in Paris, Lyon and Nantes on Thursday followingnoon. The authorities expected up to 800,000 demonstrators across the country on the new day of strikes and protests once morest the gradual increase in the retirement age from 62 to 64 years.
Demonstrators reportedly blocked access to part of Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. There were also blockades on roads and various universities in the country. According to media reports, shops in Lyon were damaged. In Nantes, the police used tear gas in clashes. The atmosphere in Rennes was also tense.
Even before the march in Paris started, opponents of the pension reform broke into a company building. Videos showed them lighting Bengal fires and chanting chants. “It takes money to finance our pension system. There is some here,” a spokesman for the railway workers’ union CGT Cheminots called into the megaphone, according to the newspaper “Le Parisien”. “Instead of taking two years of life from workers, Macron should look for it here.”
US asset manager Blackrock, who did not comment when asked, is also in the building. During Macron’s first term in office, Blackrock had become something of an enemy during the strikes and protests once morest the pension reforms planned at the time. Blackrock has not played a role in the current protests.
President Emmanuel Macron’s controversial pension reform has now been decided. He and the middle government want to prevent a hole in the pension fund. The trade unions and large parts of the opposition reject the reform as unfair.
Currently, the retirement age in France is 62 years. In fact, retirement begins later on average: those who have not paid in long enough to receive a full pension work longer. At the age of 67 there will then be a pension without any deductions, regardless of how long it has been paid in – the government wants to keep it that way, even if the number of years required to pay in for a full pension is to increase more quickly. She wants to increase the monthly minimum pension to around 1,200 euros.
In the dispute over the reform, French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne met the unions on Wednesday. They later declared the talks a failure. Borne did not comply with her request to withdraw the reform. Rather, the government would like to discuss other issues in the world of work with the trade unions.
The pension reform has not yet come into force. Macron wants that to happen by the end of the year. The project is currently being examined by the Constitutional Council. MPs, senators and Borne had called the authority to examine the text and examine the government’s actions.
Parts of the opposition complained that the government packaged the reform in a budget text and sent it through parliament in an accelerated process. The Constitutional Council can overturn part or all of the reform or declare it constitutional. Next week Friday he wants to announce his decision. Although most unions are expected to respect the decision, protests are likely to continue.
