French President, Emmanuel Macron has signed his government’s highly unpopular pension reforms, which raises the state pension age from 62 to 64, into law.
Macron signed the reforms into law in the early hours of Saturday, April 15, 2023, morning, a day after the Constitutional Council approved the change.
Macron’s signature and publication in the Official Journal of the French Republic allowed the law to enter into force. President Macron claims that the reforms are essential to prevent the pension system from collapsing. In March, the government used a special constitutional power to force the plan through without a vote.
The Constitutional Council rejected opposition calls for a referendum but it also struck out some aspects of the reforms, citing legal flaws.
Even though the Council rejected some parts of the government’s pension reforms, it approved the higher minimum retirement age, which was central to Macron’s plan and the focus of opponents’ protests.
While the court rejected an initial bid for a referendum on the reforms, it will decide next month on a further proposal for a national vote by the left.
After the council’s ruling, protesters set fires across Paris and 112 people were arrested.
France’s main labor unions, which organized 12 nationwide protests since January in hopes of defeating the plan, have vowed to continue fighting until it is withdrawn. They called for another mass protest on May 1, 2023, which is International Workers’ Day.
After the Friday ruling of the Constitutional Court, trade unions made an unsuccessful last-ditch appeal to the president not to sign the pension-age increase into law.
The unions pointed out that six concessions that had been added to the reforms were rejected by the court, so what was already unfair was now “even more unbalanced”.
Among the reforms struck down by the nine members of the Constitutional Council was a so-called “senior index” aimed at urging companies with more than 1,000 workers to take on employees over 55.
Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne tweeted on Friday that “tonight there is no winner, no loser”.
Pension Reform To Be Effected By September
The Labour Minister, Olivier Dussopt disclosed that he expects the reforms to come into effect by the start of September.
Dussopt has vowed to improve the employment rates of those aged over 50 in an effort to ease concerns about the financial impacts of the raised retirement age.
The left-wing Nupes political alliance was one of the groups that lodged an appeal with the court over the reforms and its leader, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, said the “fight” would continue.
“The Constitutional Council’s decision shows that it is more attentive to the needs of the presidential monarchy than to those of the sovereign people,” he said.
Marine Le Pen of the far-right National Rally, which had also appealed to the court, responded on social media that “the political fate of the pension reform is not sealed”.
French Political Analyst, Antoine Bristielle told reporters that he did not think there would soon be an end to the protests that have taken place across France for the past three months.
“A lot of people were saying that the reforms would pass and that the Constitutional Court would not avoid it so it’s not a surprise,” Bristielle said.
“But I think we will see in the upcoming hours and at the weekend, a lot of riots and strikes in the country because there are still 70% of the French population against the reform,” he added.
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