If this court, which acts as the guardian of the constitution, declares the law to be constitutional, Macron must sign it within two weeks in order to put it into effect. In this case, renewed protests by opponents of the reform are to be expected. However, it is also conceivable that the Constitutional Council will demand improvements to individual measures. Then the negotiations between the government and the union would start again.
Should the Constitutional Council reject the law outright – arguing, for example, that a budget law is not the appropriate form for such far-reaching reform – it would be a major setback for Macron. He had declared the reform to be one of the main concerns of his second term.
Left opposition demands referendum
The Constitutional Council will also comment on a motion by the left-wing opposition calling for a referendum on pension reform. If the Council agrees, it would only be the beginning of a long procedure before a referendum actually takes place.
The reform aims to gradually raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 by 2030. There are still exceptions for people who started their working life very early or who have particularly difficult jobs. In addition, the minimum pension for full contribution periods will be raised to EUR 1,200. More than two thirds of the French reject the pension reform. The pension is considered an important social achievement in France.
Significantly smaller demonstrations
According to the Interior Ministry, around 380,000 people took part in the protests across the country on Thursday, 42,000 of them in Paris. According to the CGT union, “more than a million demonstrators” were on the streets on Thursday – a million fewer than last week.
Overall, participation in the strikes and demonstrations had recently decreased. The Ministry of the Interior initially expected around 600,000 demonstrators across the country on Thursday – a similar number to the beginning of April. At the beginning of March, more than a million people took to the streets.
union combative
The unions had called for a nationwide day of strikes and protests for the twelfth time. In the western French cities of Nantes and Rennes, violent clashes broke out between radical demonstrators and security forces on the fringes of the demonstrations. Firecrackers were thrown at the police and they used tear gas. At least two luxury brand cars caught fire in Rennes.
“It will not be the last day of action,” said CGT union leader Sophie Binet in the morning at a blocked waste incineration plant in a Paris suburb.
The call for a strike was also less obeyed
Your union had again called for a garbage collector strike. However, it was initially not foreseeable how strongly the call would be followed. In March, huge mountains of waste accumulated during a three-week strike by garbage workers in Paris. According to SNCF, about every fifth high-speed train should be canceled on Thursday, but only a few subways and buses in Paris.
In the public sector, the strike participation on Thursday was 3.8 percent. In the past week it was still 6.5 percent. Since the reform was passed through a legal constitutional gimmick, the protests had become more radical in some cases. The security forces were criticized for their sometimes brutal actions.
