Why the French government must drop its brutal and unfair pension reforms
The pension changes proposed by President Emmanuel Macron – the fourth reform in twenty years and which in this case will push the retirement age back from 62 to 64 - will leave no one better off. The demonstrators who have taken to the streets on January 19th and January 31st have fully grasped that point, say Mediapart's Stéphane Alliès, Carine Fouteau and Dan Israel in this op-ed article. They argue that the stubbornness shown by the government, which looks set to force the reforms through the French Parliament, represents a danger to democracy.
AllAll it required was one little phrase to further fuel the already fierce opposition to the French government's proposed pension reforms, and Élisabeth Borne managed to find it. The prime minister declared on the radio on January 29th that both pushing back the age of retirement from 62 to 64 and accelerating the timetable for increasing the number of years you need to work to qualify for a full pension were “no longer negotiable”.
