PARIS —
France’s Constitutional Council on Friday approved an unpopular plan to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 in a victory for President Emmanuel Macron after three months of mass protests over the legislation that have damaged his leadership.
The move threatened to enrage unions and other critics of the pension plan, including protesters gathered in spots around France on Friday evening as the decision came down. Macron’s political opponents vowed to maintain pressure on the government to withdraw the bill.
The council rejected some other measures in the pension bill, but the higher age was central to Macron’s plan and the target of protesters’ anger.
In a separate but related decision, the council rejected a request by left-wing lawmakers to allow for a possible referendum on enshrining 62 as the maximum official retirement age. The council will rule on a similar request next month.
Security forces stood behind a metal fence erected in front of the heavily guarded Constitutional Council.
As tensions mounted hours before the decision, Macron invited labor unions to meet with him next Tuesday, “whatever the decision by the Constitutional Council,” his office said. The president did not grant a request last month by unions for a meeting. Unions have been the organizers of 12 nationwide protests since January and have a critical role in trying to tamp down excessive reactions by protesters.
“The doors of the Elysee [presidential palace] will remain open, without condition, for this dialogue,” Macron’s office said. There was no immediate response from unions to the invitation.
The plan to increase the retirement age was meant to be Macron’s showcase measure in his second term.
The council decision caps months of tumultuous debates in parliament and fervor in the streets.
Spontaneous demonstrations were held around France ahead of the nine-member council’s ruling. Opponents of the pension reform blockaded entry points into some cities, including Rouen in the west and Marseille in the south, snarling traffic.
French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne was interrupted while visiting a supermarket outside Paris by a group of people chanting, “We don’t want it,” referring to the way she skirted the vote by lawmakers to advance the pension reform.
The government’s decision to get around a parliamentary vote in March by using special constitutional powers heightened the fury of the measure’s opponents, as well as their determination. Another group awaited Borne in the parking lot.
“We’re in a democracy, so everyone can express themselves,” the prime minister told news station BFM TV. “My priority is to bring calm” and to address concrete concerns, she said. She went into the store to discuss anti-inflation measures.
The president’s drive to increase the retirement age has provoked months of strikes and protests. Violence by pockets of ultra-left radicals marked the 12 otherwise peaceful nationwide marches that unions organized since January.
to be continued