Huge crowds swept through France on Tuesday in a new round of protests against President Emmanuel Macron’s plan to raise the retirement age, signaling the opposition’s success in framing the pension debate as part of a wider fight against an economic platform they see as unfair.
Although figures from the police and unions differed, all agreed that the number of demonstrators had increased compared to the first round of protests on January 19, increasing pressure on a government struggling to convince voters of the need for pension reform. which includes raising the legal retirement age from 62 to 64.
In Paris, where an estimated half a million people took to the streets, tens of thousands of demonstrators were still waiting to march as daylight faded on the sprawling Place d’Italie, hours after the event began. Reflecting the extent of opposition to the reform, the mass rally included both veteran unionists and newcomers, young and old, including some who said they had never attended a protest before.
“I’ve never protested, but this time the government is pushing too far,” said Geraldine, 58, a laboratory technician at the nearby Pitié-Salpetrière hospital, who declined to give her full name.
“I have already worked for 38 years, [Covid] including a pandemic and I’m absolutely exhausted,” she said. “The government wants us to work not only for two more years. That’s two more years in ever-worsening conditions – and at an age when most of us are no longer fit for work.”
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People like Geraldine, who got her first full-time job in her 20s and later worked part-time to raise her daughter, stand to lose the most from the proposed reform, which would require them to work on -long to qualify for a full pension.
So do unskilled workers like Ayed, a stock controller at a local supermarket who wore the red vest of the Force Ouvrière union as he marched through Paris. “I’m 42 and my back is already cracked from carrying heavy loads all day – how am I going to carry on in 20 years?” he asked.
>> ‘I can’t take it anymore’: French working class laments Macron’s push to raise retirement age
The government has signaled there is wiggle room on some measures as parliamentary committees begin considering the bill this week. But promises to improve conditions for people who started work very young, or for mothers who interrupted their careers to look after children, failed to offset the feeling of reform hurting the most vulnerable.
Talk of the gender imbalance in the text has gained particular traction, not least after one of Macron’s ministers admitted last week that he would “leave women a bit penalized” – one of several PR blunders that have marred the government’s attempts to promote its an increasingly unpopular plan.
“We always knew women were going to be screwed – but the fact that they have to admit it so casually is just baffling,” Mia, 16, said outside her high school in Paris, where students turned up at 6am hoping to block off the building – only to find that riot police have arrived first.
Elsewhere, students managed to occupy a handful of schools and university buildings, while a national strike backed by all key unions in France disrupted public transport and oil refineries, with more strike action expected in the coming days and weeks.
“Unnecessary and unfair”
Macron staked his reformist credentials on passing his flagship pension reform, which polls show around two-thirds of French people now oppose – a figure that has risen steadily in recent weeks.
“The more the French learn about the reform, the less they support it,” Frédéric Dabi, a prominent sociologist at the Ifop institute, told AFP. “This is not good for the government at all.
While Macron and his government tout the merits of their proposed spending-cutting reform, their opponents have managed to frame the debate in much broader terms, focusing on questions of how wealth is distributed under Macron and whether the poorest will bear the brunt of his suggestions.
“The pension plan is both regressive in terms of quality of life and economically unfair – which means it is fundamentally at odds with our vision,” said Sofia Chikirou, a lawmaker from the left-wing France Insubordinate party (LFI), at the rally in Paris.
As 21-year-old protester Lalie Geffriaud said, “It’s not just about pension reform — it’s about a broader opposition to the direction this country is taking.”
>> Will strikes force Macron to back down on French pension reforms?
The government says its proposals are needed to keep the pension system solvent as French life expectancy has increased and the birth rate has fallen. But unions and left-wing parties want big companies or wealthier households to step in more to balance the pension budget instead.
Adding to the government’s problems, its main argument was undermined earlier this month when the country’s independent Pensions Advisory Council told parliament that “pension spending is not out of control – it is relatively contained”. The assessment only reinforced a widespread belief that the reform requires unnecessary sacrifices from the French at a time when they are struggling with an inflationary crisis and still recovering from the Covid pandemic.
“This reform is completely unnecessary – on top of that it’s unfair,” said retired scientist Mireille Cuneo, 69, who gathered on Tuesday with dozens of other women dressed as Rosie the Riveter in her iconic blue jumpsuit.
She added: “This is a reform that changes nothing for the highest earners and weighs squarely on the most vulnerable – you can’t make it any more unfair!”
Protesters dressed as feminist icon Rosie the Riveter at a rally in Paris. © Benjamin Dodman, FRANCE 24
Talking about the perceived unfairness of the reform was a recurring theme of the protest, which attracted people from outside the ranks of the left.
“Injustice is the most shocking; it’s always the working class that ends up paying the most,” said elementary school teacher Eric Schwab, who describes himself as center-right leaning. He held up a banner that read, “I refuse to waste my life trying to make a living.”
Schwab challenged the government’s habit of comparing France’s legal retirement age – one of the lowest in Europe – with that of its neighbours, noting that existing rules already require many French workers to retire well past the age of 62 to are eligible for a full pension.
“They only compare us to other countries when it’s convenient for them,” he said. “What they won’t admit is that Germans doing the same job as me earn twice as much and with half the class sizes.”
The proposed changes are about more than raising the retirement age, Schwab added, condemning the “ultra-liberal” economic platform stacked in favor of the wealthy.
“After the 2008 financial crisis, governments somehow found billions of euros to save the banks,” he said. “They know where to find the money when they need it — especially when they’re spending our money.”
Macron’s critics accuse him of pushing the same neoliberal agenda as former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. © Benjamin Dodman, FRANCE 24
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