(Paris) President Emmanuel Macron will address the French on Monday after the promulgation on Saturday night in the Official Journal of the unpopular pension reform and its flagship measure of raising the retirement age to 64 years.
After the text was validated by the Constitutional Council on Friday, the unions “solemnly” asked the French president, who had 15 days to make the text executive, “not to promulgate the law”.
The general secretary of the CGT union Sophie Binet denounced Saturday a “totally shameful” decision while her counterpart at the CFDT Laurent Berger regretted “the contempt returned to the workers”.
“Wanting to go fast, it looks like provocation,” added Frédéric Souillot of FO.
Deploring “contempt” and “febrility”, the number one of the Socialist Party Olivier Faure for his part promised “democratic harassment” to reverse the increase in the retirement age from 62 to 64 years old.
At midday, the Élysée announced that the Head of State would address the French during a televised address on Monday evening “in a logic of appeasement” and “also look at what has advanced alongside the pensions,” promised government spokesman Olivier Véran, citing lower unemployment and taxes, increased number of apprentices, etc.
Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne will speak on Saturday afternoon at the National Council of the presidential Renaissance party in Paris.
“It’s not over,” thundered the inter-union, united for three months against this reform and who declined an invitation to go to the Elysee on Tuesday.
She is betting on the traditional social meeting on May 1, which she wants to transform into a major mobilization against retirement at 64.
And the CGT mentioned upcoming actions in all sectors on Thursday as well as on April 28.
Reconnecting with the unions will not be easy. “There will be resentment, scars,” slips a close friend of the head of state.
The inter-union considered that the censorship by the Constitutional Council of six articles of the law (in particular on the employment of seniors) made this text, “already unfair”, “even more unbalanced”.
The Council also blocked a first request for a referendum of shared initiative (RIP) from the left, which hoped to start collecting 4.8 million signatures for an unprecedented consultation of the French. It will rule on May 3 on a second draft RIP aimed at thwarting the reform.
The decision of the Constitutional Council was greeted with boos, consternation or anger at rallies in the country which sometimes led to wild demonstrations interspersed with degradations. In Paris, 112 people were arrested, according to the police.
The day before, Thursday, the 12th day of mobilization had delivered the second lowest mobilization score since the start of the movement (380,000 demonstrators according to the Ministry of the Interior, 1.5 million according to the CGT union).
The social movement, one of the most important in recent decades, began after the presentation of the reform on January 10 and gave rise to massive demonstrations, while the text was examined in Parliament in a very tense atmosphere between government, which does not have an absolute majority in the Assembly, and oppositions.
Socialist deputies and senators have already announced their intention to table a legislative text calling for the repeal of the pension reform, a text adopted after the use of “49.3”, a controversial article of the French Constitution allowing the adoption of a bill without vote of the deputies.
France is one of the European countries with the lowest retirement age, but with very different systems.
The executive justifies its project by the need to respond to the financial deterioration of pension funds and the aging of the population, but opponents consider it “unfair”, especially for women and employees in arduous jobs.
