Nationwide strikes and protests against a proposed increase in the retirement age from 62 to 64 and other adjustments to the complex pension system are continuing in France today. People also have to work longer to get a full pension by age 67.
According to the government, the reforms are necessary because people are now forced to work longer because they are generally older than before. Therefore, working people pay pensions to an increasing number of pensioners.
Trade unions have already organized actions on this occasion, the largest of which was the national strike day on January 19. Then between 1 and 1.5 million people demonstrated against the reform plans. Also, many strikes and protesters are expected today. The largest protest march returned to the capital of Paris and started at 14:00 on Place d’Italie.
The government presented the plans to parliament on Monday and stressed that raising the retirement age is out of the question. The government of President Macron and Prime Minister Bourne no longer has a majority in France’s lower house, the National Assembly. The main opposition party, the Republican Party, appears to support the plans. The leftist Nupes coalition categorically rejects them, as does the National Union, among others, and has submitted numerous amendments.
French governments have struggled for decades with pension reform and protested their plans to overhaul the expensive and complex system built by the profession. Macron let the reform plan languish in a drawer, largely because of fierce protests in 2020. At the end of 1995, the country was paralyzed for three weeks by numerous demonstrations against the then plans to reform the pension system. Then on December 12, according to trade unions, there were 2 million demonstrators in Paris. According to the government, there were 1 million. Three days later, the government withdrew the proposed pension reform.
Source : HLN