A Final Rupture Between the French and Macron: What Are the Implications of Approving the Retirement Law?

Amid an atmosphere fraught with tension and strikes that France has been witnessing for months, French President Emmanuel Macron issued last week a decree reforming the retirement system, which provides for raising the retirement age to 64 years, hours after it was approved by the Constitutional Council, while unions and the opposition pledged to continue the struggle against this law.

This decision is also a direct rejection of the draft referendum of the joint initiative, which was demanded by the left and which was among the three scenarios presented to the Council, but the French left submitted a second request aimed at thwarting the reform, pending a decision by the Constitutional Council on its matter on May 3.

On the evening of April 17, 2023, President Macron addressed the French in an attempt to contain their anger over the pension reform plan, which is facing popular and political opposition.

Macron’s speech may not have been enough to calm the anger of the French, as several thousand of them chose to respond by banging on empty cooking pots to express their protest.

In turn, the French opposition did not hesitate to criticize his speech and almost agreed, despite the diversity of its orientations, that it was separate from reality, did not bring anything new, and was not sufficient to quell the protests.

The labor unions had rejected Macron’s invitation to come to the Elysee Palace, stressing that they would not negotiate with the French government before May 1, Labor Day, which they called for making it an exceptional mobilization day against raising the retirement age to 64 years.

Opponents of the law consider it unfair, especially for women and workers in difficult jobs, while the executive authority justifies the law by the need to respond to the financial deterioration of pension funds and the aging population.

Observers believe that the escalation announced by the unions and the opposition at the same time will increase pressure on Macron, who is in a difficult situation in dealing with internal and external issues.

 

Pension Reform

Emmanuel Macron addressed the French at the beginning of this week after publishing the pension reform decree in the Official Gazette on April 15, 2023.

The amendment provides, in particular, for raising the retirement age to 64 years, and it is not popular among the French, while the labor unions insist on continuing to mobilize against it.

Macron reaffirmed during his recent televised speech that reforming the retirement system is essential for his country, although he feels the anger of the French who demonstrated against this plan; the response cannot be strictness or extremism.

He regretted not being able to reach a consensus on the reforms and made it clear that he would always keep his door open for talks with the unions.

But it has come at a significant cost to the French president: opinion polls show his popularity has plunged to its lowest level in four years.

Government spokesman Olivier Veran confirmed that Macron had invited union representatives to come to the Elysee Palace on April 18, adding in his statement that the door would remain open without preconditions for this dialogue.

This comes as a clear indication of the change in the French president’s policy toward labor unions, especially after he refused to sit with them at the discussion table about a month ago.

Opposition parties and unions say that Macron’s plans are a brutal attack on the country’s welfare model, where hefty taxes and pension contributions fund generous social services.

Macron’s government says that raising the retirement age will plug a €13.5 billion shortfall the pension reform would otherwise be running by 2030.

Opinion polls show that the majority of the French oppose reforming the pension reform, and support the ongoing protests against it.

On the other hand, the leader of the far-right in France, Marine Le Pen, said that Macron exercises power in a unilateral and absurd way.

She added that Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne was completely burned, and the government had lost its credibility, considering that the president had three options, either organizing a referendum, dissolution, or resignation.

The leader of the radical left, Jean-Luc Melenchon, saw that President Macron is completely disconnected from reality.

“Macron is in absolute denial,” Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure said in the National Assembly, adding, “I’m afraid he has fanned a very hot fire.”

It is noteworthy that the institutional and democratic path of Macron’s plan ended in Parliament following the use of the controversial Article 49.3 in the French constitution, which allows a bill to be passed without a vote.

The decision of the Constitutional Council was met with resentment and anger through mass gatherings in the country, which sometimes led to violent demonstrations.

In recent days, the intensity of the protests that the country has witnessed since mid-January has decreased, especially on April 13, 2023, which is the twelfth day of mobilization (380,000 demonstrators according to the Ministry of Interior, 1.5 million according to the General Labor Union).

The social movement, which is one of the most important in recent decades, began after the presentation of the reform plan on January 10, with mass demonstrations, while the text is being studied in Parliament in a very tense atmosphere between the government, which does not have an absolute majority in Parliament, and the opposition.

 

Decisive Labor Day

In a related context, France’s General Confederation of Labor confirmed three months ago against the controversial plan to reform the retirement system that the matter has not ended and that re-establishing contact with it will not be easy.

The unions had officially asked the French president, who had fifteen days to activate the text, not to issue the law.

The Secretary-General of the hard-left CGT union, Sophie Binet, called for a historic popular extension, and condemned the adoption of the disgraceful law, as she described it.

The Secretary-General of the French Democratic Confederation of Labor (CFDT), Laurent Berger, wished for a resounding success on May 1 in terms of the number of demonstrators in the street, expressing regret for the contempt for workers.

If the labor forces unite on May 1, this will be a precedent since 2002, a few days after the far-right candidate, Jean-Marie Le Pen, moved on April 21 to the second round of the presidential elections, a precedent in France.

After the Constitutional Council issued its decision, the main parties in the opposition announced that they were determined to continue their battle against the bill to reform the pension system, warning in particular of the dangers of violence.

Olivier Faure considered that issuing the text quickly indicates contempt, pledging democratic harassment in order to reverse the raising of the retirement age from 62 to 64 years.

Jean-Luc Melenchon said the decision caters more to the needs of a presidential monarchy than to the demands of the sovereign people, pointing to a decisive May Day and a continuous struggle.

Marine Le Pen saw that the political fate of reforming the pension system has not yet been decided, describing the reform as unproductive and unfair.

The head of the National Front (far-right), Jordan Bardella, believed that Macron would not be able to hide behind the decision, which does not close the debate in any way, stressing that it contributes to the formation of a major rupture between the president of the Republic and the French people.

The Socialist deputies and senators also announced their intention to submit a legislative text calling for the abolition of the pension reform.

The unions and the opposition considered that the Constitutional Council’s rejection of six of the reform provisions (especially those related to the employment of the elderly) made this unfair text more dysfunctional.

The anger of the French street is still strong, even if the executive authority hopes, through this decision, that Macron’s second term will resume its course after it had been greatly hindered amid the movements against reforming the pension system.

 

Macron’s Options

In any case, the French president’s adherence to the new law does not mean that the battle has been decided; train services were disrupted, some schools closed, rubbish piled up in the streets, and electricity generation disrupted as unions stepped up pressure on the government to withdraw the law, which may present Macron with several difficult choices, according to an analysis published by France 24 on March 21, 2023.

After the Constitutional Council issued its ruling on the law, there may be only one way out to end the political crisis afflicting the country, which passes through organizing a participatory popular referendum to resolve this issue.

However, this way out requires the fulfillment of some conditions, the first of which is the collection of about five million popular signatures and 185 signatures by members of Parliament (577 in total) in order for this referendum to be organized.

Some observers of French politics believe that Macron’s second term will suffer a lot and will face many problems in Parliament in order to pass other laws, such as the immigration and labor laws that will be discussed in the coming period.

Others also fear that France will enter a long-term cycle of violence, such as what happened during the yellow vest demonstrations 4 years ago, which left a painful memory for the French and for President Macron himself.

In turn, lawyer Zaid al-Azem explained in a statement to Al-Estiklal that “France’s Macron has been waiting for the decision of the Constitutional Council for the last period to resume dialogue with labor unions and the opposition.”

As for the reasons for the unions’ rejection of Macron’s call for dialogue, the French-based lawyer stated that “the Confederation of Trade Unions in France is preparing for a huge demonstration on May 1, which is Workers’ Day, to protest reforms. We will have to wait until then to see how wide or reduced the protests will be.”

“The matter is over because the Constitutional Council, Parliament, and lawmakers in France have said their word that raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 is a constitutional legal measure, and President Macron will never back down from it,” Mr. al-Azem said.

“The opposition parties said they wanted to propose a law to cancel reforms to the pension law, which is a permissible constitutional path, despite the difficulty of those parties’ ability to legitimize such a law,” he added.

From Mr. al-Azem’s point of view, there is a link between the postponement of the new immigration law and the French government’s insistence on quickly approving pension reforms, adding that the new immigration law was postponed due to the political tensions that accompanied the adoption of the pension law, even within President Macron’s coalition.