Paris After the unsuccessful talks between the French trade unions and the government on the pension reform, strikes and protests against the project are once again taking place in France. Opponents of French President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reforms broke into a company building in Paris on Thursday. Videos taken Thursday showed them holding flares and chanting.
“It takes money to fund our pension system. There are 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 the workers, Macron should look for it here.” The building is also home to US wealth manager Blackrock, who did not comment when asked.
During Macron’s first term in office, Blackrock had become something of an enemy during the strikes and protests against the pension reforms planned at the time – opponents of the reform believed that the asset manager was benefiting from Macron’s reform plans and had influenced the plans.
Blackrock denied this. Blackrock has not played a role in the current protests against the pension reform.
Protesters also reportedly blocked access to part of Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris on Thursday, as well as roads and colleges in various locations. The authorities expect up to 800,000 protesters nationwide against the gradual increase in the retirement age from 62 to 64 years.
“There is no other solution than to roll back the reform.”
(Photo: Reuters)
Macron and the mid-government want to gradually raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 to prevent a hole in the pension fund. The trade unions and large sections of the opposition reject the reform that has now been passed as unfair.
“There is no other solution than to roll back the reform”
On Thursday, the unions continued to demand that the government simply bury its plans. “There is no other solution than to roll back the reform,” said the new chairwoman of the CGT union, Sophie Binet, at the beginning of a demonstration in Paris.
The head of the largest trade union, CFDT, Laurent Berger, spoke of a social crisis on RTL radio. He asked to take part in the protest marches planned for Friday.
On Wednesday, talks between union representatives and Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne were broken off after just one hour without any result. “We have decided to end this useless gathering,” Binet said. It was the first time since January that unions and the government had worked together to find a way out of the deadlock.
Millions of people have been demonstrating and striking against the pension reform since the beginning of the year. The protests intensified after the government passed the draft law with special powers through parliament without a vote.
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.
Hundreds of thousands are taking to the streets across the country.
(Photo: IMAGO/PanoramaC)
At the age of 67 there is then a pension without a deduction, regardless of how long it has been paid in – the government wants to keep this, even if the number of years of payments required for a full pension is to increase more quickly. She wants to increase the monthly minimum pension to around 1,200 euros.
However, the reform has not yet come into force. Macron wants this to happen by the end of the year. The project is currently being examined by the Constitutional Council. MPs, senators and Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne called the authority to examine the text.
The Constitutional Council can overturn part or all of the reform or declare it constitutional. Next week Friday he wants to announce his decision.
More: Arbitration in the French pension dispute failed – new protests announced