In the dispute over pension reform in France, talks between the government and unions are reportedly on the horizon. At the beginning of next week, Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne wants to receive representatives of the unions, as reported by the French media. Laurent Berger, head of the CFDT union, said on France Info on Wednesday: “I will go there to explain why this reform is a dead end, why the 64 years are being rejected.” One has to understand that there is a deep resentment of the reform and a strong resentment against the way things have been done.
France’s central government under President Emmanuel Macron wants to gradually raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 in order to close a looming gap in the pension fund. There have been strikes and protests since the beginning of the year. The unions consider the project to be brutal and unjust. The dispute recently intensified because the government pushed the text through the National Assembly without a vote. A week ago, two motions of no confidence in the government failed. The reform has thus been passed. It will now be reviewed by the Constitutional Council. Macron wants the reform to come into force by the end of the year.
Macron had previously indicated that there should be talks with the unions – not on pension reform, but on other issues of working life and only in a few weeks. The government had also presented the increase in the retirement age to 64 as non-negotiable. “I’ll talk about it,” said Berger. “And if you tell me, ‘You can’t talk about it,’ then you have to go.”
Riots in several cities
The protests in France against the pension reform have again led to riots in several cities. 175 of the approximately 13,000 police officers and gendarmes who were deployed yesterday were injured, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin wrote on Twitter that night.
According to a preliminary balance sheet, 201 people were arrested. According to media reports, there were riots and property damage not only in Paris, but also in Nantes, Rennes, Lille, Bordeaux, Calais, Dijon, Toulouse, Strasbourg and Caen. Police used water cannon and tear gas in some places.
No government concessions in sight
Hundreds of thousands protested against President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform yesterday. The Ministry of the Interior spoke of around 740,000 participants nationwide. According to the CGT union, more than two million people took part in the protest. The protests, which have been peaceful for weeks, have recently been overshadowed by massive violence and clashes.
