Explained: France’s nationwide strikes over Emmanuel Macron’s pension reforms

It was a terrible Thursday for France. Teachers, train drivers, and more than a million people joined a day of protests and strikes in the European nation. The reason for their anger: Emmanuel Macron’s plans to raise the official retirement age as part of the country’s pension reforms.

According to the interior ministry, some 80,000 protesters took to the streets in Paris, while there were another 200 more demonstrations across other French cities.

Public transport was seriously compromised, with train and intercity services coming to a halt. Schools remained shut, as three-quarters of teachers joined the protests. The mass protests also affected flights and according to reports, even oil refinery workers stopped work.

The head of the big CGT union, Philippe Martinez, as per a BBC report put the total number of protesters at beyond two million, higher than the government’s 1.12 million figure. They said 400,000 peopled had joined the biggest march, from Place de la République in Paris.

People in France went on a nationwide strike to protest the government’s plans to raise the retirement age by 2 years to 64pic.twitter.com/QsftZxbrsY

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Who is protesting?

France’s eight main trade unions called for the mass strikes against the Emmanuel Macron government today. Strikes have been called across sectors — with teachers, nurses, railway and police unions as well as oil refinery and port workers joining the protests.

Train services in the country were affected. In Paris, only two automatic metro lines operated normally, while most metro and bus lines reduced service. Le Parisien had reported that more than 500 trains would be cancelled by the national public railway company.

Only one-in-three and one-in-five high-speed TGV lines will be operating, said Société nationale des chemins de fer français (SNCF) rail operator.

Other transportation modes such as flights were also disrupted, with Orly airport in Paris reporting a cancellation of one in five flights.

“The strike will cause very strong disruption on Thursday in buses, metros, trains; flight cancellations are expected at Orly (airport). When possible, we will cancel or postpone our trips,” tweeted Clément Beaune, France’s transport minister.

Power supply across the country also see disruptions as electricity workers pledged to reduce supply as a form of protest.

Strikes have also been announced by truck drivers, couriers and delivery companies. Moreover, staff Staff at many theatres, music venues and banks have also said they will join the protests, bringing the country to pretty much a standstill.

Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux, president of the employers’ union, was quoted as telling Euronews that while he could not predict how many people would strike, he expected the movement to be strong in the public sector but not necessarily big within private companies.

On the other hand, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said that 10,000 police would be on alert, more than a third of them in the capital, including to look out for some 1,000 demonstrators who could be “violent”.

Why are workers striking?

The reason why France is bracing for massive strikes is President Emmanuel Macron’s new pension reform, one of the planks he was voted into power back in 2017.

The president introduced a new law to raise the official retirement age from 62 to 64 and to make workers pay into the pension system for longer. As per the proposals, which if voted in, will have people working for 43 years to qualify for a full pension, as opposed to the 42 years now.

The government in France maintains that reforms in the pension system are a must, as the ratio between those working and those in retirement is diminishing rapidly. From four workers per retiree 50 years ago, the ratio has fallen to around 1.7 per retiree today, and will sink further in the years ahead.

Officials argue that the step is in line with nearly all other European nations that have raised the official retirement age — Italy and Germany is at 67, Spain is at 65 and UK is currently at 66.

However, the reforms haven’t been well received. A recent IFOP poll showed that 68 per cent of the public was against the reform measures.

The country’s trade unions and left-wing parties are also against the measures, arguing that as the system is currently not in deficit at the moment, there is no urgency to act. They also argued that the government should focus on higher employee and employer contributions.

Their grouse with Macron’s pension reform is that they believe it will penalise those who are most vulnerable and increase inequalities. These are people who tend to start work earlier in life, so have normally earned the right to a full pension by the age of 62. Now they will have to work two extra years for no added benefit.

Not the first time

This isn’t the first time that Macron is trying to reform the pension system of the country. He had made an earlier, more ambition attempt at the end of 2019, but pulled the plug when coronavirus took over the world.

France’s pension system has been called by critics byzantine or convoluted, in part because it consists of 42 different state-supported pension schemes. The entire pensions system cost the government just under 14 per cent of GDP in 2021.

Over the years, several governments have tried to bring in changes to the system and been met with resistance from the workers. It all began in 1982 when Socialist President Francois Mitterand brought down the retirement age to 60 from 65.

Thirteen years later, France was brought to a grinding halt when Conservative President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Alain Juppe attempted to make 40 years of work mandatory in the private sector for pension. Trade unions called a general strike that crippled train and metro services for three weeks. The public sided massively with the strikers, forcing the government into a climbdown.

Later in 2010, Nicolas Sarkozy moved the retirement age to 62 from 60, with full pension only for those who have worked at least 41.5 years. Major protests saw millions take to the streets, but the reform went through.

Four years later, Francois Hollande also took on the pension issue, gradually increasing the number of years of contributions required for a full pension to 43.

With inputs from agencies

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