“French President Emmanuel Macron faces backlash over pension reform”

French President Emmanuel Macron is rushing to close the story with a heated debate, a violent parliamentary pass and a furious street contest over pension reform. He spoke about this in an address to fellow citizens on the evening of April 17, and he also wanted to devote negotiations with trade union leaders the next day to this. In both cases, Emmanuel Macron was not convincing enough – the trade unionists watched the speech on TV, but did not come to the meeting. However, now time is already working for the president, according to a Kommersant correspondent in France. Alexey Tarkhanov.

Throughout the heated debates in parliament and heated battles in the streets, President Macron tried to stay out of the way. This is his favorite tactic: throwing in an explosive reform, leaving the government to fight for it and get bumps in clashes with public opinion. The president remained above this, as he did during the months-long yellow vest crisis. On April 14, however, he had to take charge of the reform. After its approval in the constitutional council, it was submitted for signature to the president.

Emmanuel Macron had 15 days after the bill was approved by the constitutional council on Friday to put his signature on the document. But he did not postpone it for a day, signing the bill late on the evening of April 14. “At night! Like an intruder!” the opposition shouted.

The president “wanted to put pressure on France under the cover of night,” said one of the leaders of the left, Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

On Monday evening, in a short speech on national television, Emmanuel Macron acknowledged that the reform had been rejected by public opinion. “Do people agree with this reform? Obviously not,” he said. “Despite months of consultations, no agreement could be found. I regret this and we must learn all the lessons.”

But if this was an apology, it was very vague, because Mr. Macron repeated all the usual arguments in favor of the fact that the reform was absolutely inevitable. “These changes were necessary to ensure that everyone can receive a pension and that the wealth of our country does not suffer as the number of pensioners increases and life expectancy increases.”

He proposed to treat the adoption of the reform as a fait accompli and move on to further plans, which he divided into several tasks.

The head of state proposes to compensate for the deterioration of retirement conditions by improving working conditions.

He promised to discuss the problems of wages, professional development and special measures for organizing the work of older people, whom the new retirement period will force them to stay at work. It is no secret that enterprises are reluctant to keep people of pre-retirement age at work, believing that it is better to bet on the young. The president is proposing special support and retraining programs as the issue of employment for 60-year-olds will soon become as acute as the lack of jobs for young people.

The second important issue the president considers is “justice and law and order.” “The rule of law is our foundation. There is no freedom without laws, as well as without sanctions against those who violate the rights of others,” Emmanuel Macron insisted. He announced additional recruitment of police officers to deal with offenders and judges to keep offenders in court. “Control of illegal immigration” is also part of this program, “while better integrating those who settle in our country.”

Thus, the president began preparations for discussing a new law on immigration control, which also promises real parliamentary battles: the right thinks it is toothless, while the left, on the contrary, is discriminatory.

The presidential program for the future includes a concern for education, which Mr. Macron hopes “should become one of the best in Europe.” And also about healthcare, which is still experiencing difficulties associated with the strain of covid years.

“We have 100 days of appeasement, unity and action in the service of France ahead of us,” Emmanuel Macron told his fellow citizens, setting up a meeting on a public holiday on July 14 to sum up the first results. However, peace will not come soon. Trade union leaders whom President Macron invited to a meeting today have decided at least to postpone negotiations until May 1 demonstrations, which are supposed to demonstrate the wrath of workers to the authorities. So far, the authorities have reacted to these threats rather calmly – they have long been accustomed to the violent celebration of the Day of International Solidarity of Workers.