President Emmanuel Macron and his government braced for a third wave of nationwide strikes and protests on Tuesday against plans to make the French work longer before retirement, as the bill made its way through parliament.
Rail services will be disrupted, school classes canceled and deliveries to refineries will be affected as workers from various sectors walk out, and unions have again called on the public to take to the streets en masse.
The government says people need to work two years longer – meaning up to the age of 64 for most – to keep the budget of one of the industrial world’s most generous pension schemes in the black. The French spend the longest number of years in retirement of any OECD country – a deeply valued advantage that the vast majority are reluctant to give up, polls show.
“Our pension system is structurally in deficit,” Labor Minister Olivier Dussopt said in parliament on Monday afternoon as lawmakers began debating the bill. “We act for our generation and for generations to come.” The government says the reform will allow gross savings of over 17 billion euros ($18 billion) a year by 2030.
Unions and left-wing opponents say the money can be found elsewhere, especially from the wealthy. Conservative opponents, whose support Macron needs for a working-class majority in the National Assembly, want concessions for those who start working young.
More than a million people marched in cities across France in the first two days of the strike in January as public pressure mounted against a government that insists it will stand on the main planks of reform.
More than 20,000 amendments are before lawmakers in parliament, the vast majority of which come from the left-wing Nupes alliance. However, since the reform was reflected in the annual social security law, the government can send it to the Senate after only two weeks.
In a concession to the Conservatives, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne has offered to also allow some people who start working earlier to retire early – but Les Republicains (LR) lawmakers are divided over whether the proposed starting age of 20-21 is low enough. “Someone who starts working early will stop working early.” What is so hard to understand @Elisabeth_Borne,” tweeted Aurelien Pradie, the main LR critic of the current proposal.
