Trouble in Paris

The French are furious. Strikes and protests have rocked the country for weeks as the populace resists an attempt by President Emmanuel Macron to raise the legal retirement age. Some protests have seen more than a million people take to the streets. Videos have flooded social media, showing police clashing violently with demonstrators. Amid the unrest, world-­famous attractions like the Louvre and Eiffel Tower briefly closed, and King Charles III postponed a scheduled state visit.

The country’s major trade unions have held 10 days of general strikes and protests since January, with another scheduled for April 6. For three weeks in March, even Paris garbage collectors went on strike.

“It’s walls of trash,” said Cécile Alduy, describing the scene outside her house in Paris. “It’s not just like a few blocks. It’s every single street with basically the walls lined up with garbage.”

Trash collection resumed, but President Macron is not backing down from his pension reform bill, which would raise the retirement age from 62 to 64. Macron argues it is a necessary step given France’s aging population: Currently, 26 percent of its citizens are over age 60. Yet protesters believe there is more at stake than two extra years of working. They believe Macron is deaf to their concerns and is governing the country in a top-down manner.

The police response to the protests—beating back demonstrators with batons—hasn’t helped that perception. The Council of Europe, the European Union’s human rights watchdog, criticized the “excessive use of force” by police. Alduy, a Stanford University professor on sabbatical in Paris, said that “grandparents walking in the march are being attacked.” Some ­demonstrators have also violently attacked police.

Macron was elected to a second term in April 2022, but his coalition in the National Assembly lost its majority in the elections of June 2022. Since Macron did not have the votes to get his pension reform bill through parliament, he instead used Article 49.3 of the French Constitution, which allows a bill to pass without a vote. It’s not uncommon for French presidents to use Article 49.3, and Macron has used it repeatedly over the past year.

People in Montpellier protest against the pension reform plan. Alain Robert/SIPA via AP

But this time, he may have gone too far. Polls show a large majority of French people oppose the reform. “This is a law that’s going to concern every single French citizen for years to come,” said Alduy. “So it’s exactly the kind of law where you need … consensus.”

Macron supporters argue the reform is reasonable. It would set retirement age only slightly higher than the EU average, which in 2020 was 64.3 years for men and 63.5 years for women. EU countries, including Germany and Spain, are currently incrementally increasing retirement ages from 65 to 67.

Critics say Macron rushed passage of the bill without any serious attempt to negotiate with France’s trade unions, while Macron claims union leaders were unwilling to compromise. The unions argue the pension system can be funded adequately without raising the retirement age. They say Macron has consistently cut taxes on big business and the wealthy. “The highest incomes in the country had a specific tax and he abolished it, saying we won’t be able to attract investors or companies in France,” said Christophe Premat, a former MP in the French National Assembly.

At the same time, protesters say Macron has done little to help ordinary workers who are struggling with high energy prices due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as well as inflation. Also, protesters argue the reform could ­disproportionately affect blue-collar workers: A study of French mortality between 2009 and 2013 found that male white-collar workers lived about seven years longer than blue-collar workers.

Premat believes that, while raising the retirement age would never be a popular move, resistance might be less fierce if Macron had taken a more ­collaborative approach. “It depends on how you start the dialog, what kind of options you offer to people. You need to get a wide variety of perspectives on important laws.”

France’s Constitutional Council is currently reviewing the pension reform bill and will issue a ruling April 14. The court could strike down the part of the bill that raises the retirement age. It will also rule on a request for a popular referendum on the bill. The French Constitution was amended in 2008 to allow such referendums, which require the signatures of 10 percent of voters.

The court striking down the ­retirement age might be the best-case ­scenario for quelling the unrest. Macron could save face while also giving workers their way, said Alduy. “It would be a happy ending for everyone.”

It wouldn’t, though, be the end of France’s pension problem.

—with additional reporting from Elizabeth Russell