French March In New Pension Protests, But Are They A Final Position?

Street demonstrations and transport strikes once again disrupted France on Tuesday, as another day of protests took place against a deeply unpopular pension reform, in what appeared to be a last-ditch effort to pressure authorities to scrap the changes.

Tuesday’s protest, the 14th day of nationwide demonstrations since January, reflected continued anger over the government’s decision to raise the legal retirement age from 62 to 64 – a move that put France on edge and sparked the biggest political threat in France. President Emmanuel Macron’s second term.

But after months of exceptionally large protests that failed to move Macron, and with key elements of the overhaul already enshrined in law, opponents of the reform recognize that the chances of turning the tide now are slim and that the actions of one last stand on Tuesday.

“The game is almost over whether we like it or not,” Laurent Berger, the leader of the French Democratic Confederation of Labour, France’s largest trade union, said on Tuesday as he prepared for the march in Paris.

Still added Mr. Berger added that the continued protests, even after the revision became law, was a sign of continued “anger and resentment” that could have lasting consequences for Mr. Macron.

What is the pension dispute?

Mr Macron has argued that France’s pension system, which is based on payroll taxes, is financially unsustainable because retirees supported by active workers live longer. To balance the system, his government decided to help people work longer by raising the legal retirement age.

“We have a shortage problem and we need to solve it,” Macron said in a televised interview last month. “I support this reform.”

But detractors say Macron has exaggerated the threat of projected deficits and refused to consider other ways to balance the system, such as raising payroll taxes for workers.

Faced with widespread opposition in the streets and in parliament, the government pressed ahead with the revision using a constitutional provision that avoided a full parliamentary vote.

The move angered opponents who felt they were not being listened to. What began as peaceful marches that drew millions of people into the streets led to several ‘wild protests’ characterized by violent vandalism and mass demonstrations designed to express people’s discontent and frustration.

Is Macron in political trouble?

The turmoil over pension changes has confronted Mr Macron with a harsh political reality.

Having lost his absolute majority in the National Assembly, the lower and more powerful house of parliament, he cannot push through the contested reforms as easily as before. He has no majority in the Senate, making him dependent on the goodwill of the dominant center-right Republican party with which he has so far tried unsuccessfully to forge an alliance.

In March, Macron’s government narrowly survived a no-confidence vote on the pension overhaul after several Republican lawmakers unexpectedly voted against it.

To put the problems behind him, Mr Macron has made numerous visits to French cities and towns to announce measures ranging from raising teachers’ salaries to fighting wildfires.

He also gave himself until mid-July to take a handful of crucial measures to improve working conditions for the French and tackle illegal immigration. A long-awaited immigration law has been repeatedly delayed as it remains unclear whether the government can secure a majority to pass it.

Still, Mr Macron’s efforts appear to be paying off.

His popularity, which had plummeted due to the pension changes, has risen 4 percentage points over the past month, according to a recent survey conducted by the Elabe Survey Office. The figure has now stabilized at around 30 percent, slightly below its popularity level in January, before the pension protests began.

What happens now?

Having exhausted most of their options to block the pension changes, including an attempt to allow a referendum on the issue, left-wing forces and trade unions are now pinning their hopes on a provision proposed by a small parliamentary group to to repeal the pension law. .

The provision has been scrapped at committee level, but left-wing parties hope to get it back on the agenda through an amendment they will discuss in the National Assembly on Thursday. But the move is expected to be rejected by the Speaker of the House, a member of Mr Macron’s party.

“We are a tumultuous people,” Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the founder of the far-left party France Unbowed, told the newspaper. 20 minutes on Sunday. “This battle will never end.”