The main components of President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform were allowed by France’s constitutional court on Friday, allowing him to execute the unpopular revisions that have provoked months of protests and strikes, Entrepreneurng report.
The nine-member Constitutional Council determined that important elements, including hiking the retirement age from 62 to 64, were legal and upheld them.
Six minor ideas were turned down, including one that would have required big businesses to disclose the number of persons over 55 they employ as well as another that would have created special contracts just for older workers.
The choice is seen as a success for Macron, but observers claim it has come at a significant personal cost to the 45-year-old while wreaking months of havoc on the nation with occasionally violent protests that have injured hundreds.
However, with his decision to force the pensions law through the lower house of parliament without a vote, the president’s approval ratings are at or near their lowest point in history.
Four years after a catastrophic fire destroyed the Notre Dame Cathedral, Macron declared on Friday, “Stay the course, that’s my motto,” as he surveyed repair operations there.
Again, with up to 10,000 people expected to assemble once more in Paris on Friday night, police are concerned that the recent protests’ damage and fights would recur due to the presence of several hundred left-wing militants.
When the court ruling was revealed on Friday night, thousands of demonstrators gathered in front of Paris city hall and booed it.
A short distance from the Louvre museum, the Constitutional Council’s offices have been fortified with barriers, and dozens of riot police are stationed outside to keep watch.
Elisabeth Borne, the prime minister, stated that the court “judged the reform, on the substance as well as procedure, to conform with the constitution.” Notwithstanding, there are no winners or losers this evening.
10,000 tonnes of uncollected trash were left in the streets of Paris due to a garbage workers’ strike last month, and regular stoppages have been affecting rail services, oil refineries, and schools since January.
The latest day of union-led protest saw about 380,000 people take to the streets nationwide on Thursday, according to the interior ministry.
However, that was a small portion of the almost 1.3 million protesters that turned out in March. The court rejected an attempt by opposition MPs to force a referendum on a different pension law that would have kept the retirement age at 62 in a second ruling on Friday.
In conclusion, the majority of France’s European neighbors, many of which have raised the retirement age to 65 or higher, are ahead of it at the moment.
Source: Punch
