France's fight for the right to retire: Will Macron blink, or the protestors?

France's President Emmanuel Macron attends a news conference with Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz (not pictured) at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany May 9, 2022. REUTERS/Lisi Niesner/File Photo

A series of violent protests in France this week against the government’s attempt to raise the pension age from 62 to 64 has brought normal life to a standstill, and forced the British monarch Charles III to cancel his visit to Paris.

Angered by French President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to not only push through the bill raising the retirement age, but to do so without a vote in parliament, over a million people took to the streets of the French capital and other big cities of France.

During the protests this March, 903 cases of arson have been reported so far, including one where the entrance of the Town Hall in Bordeaux was set on fire.

Police fired tear gas and used water cannons to disperse protesters in different parts of the country as they turned violent. The protesters took out long marches in Paris and elsewhere and disrupted transport networks, oil refineries, and schools. The protests also affected air traffic at Paris’ Orly and Charles de Gaulle airports.

Across France, 457 people were arrested and 441 policemen injured in clashes on the streets.

Since the garbage collectors have joined the protest, trash bins in Paris and other cities are overflowing with stinking rubbish, making life miserable for pedestrians and residents.

The protests have been going on for days and culminated in a nationwide strike on Thursday. The situation is unlikely to get better as France’s eight major trade unions have threatened a further nationwide protest on March 28, and called for disruptive action over the weekend.

“The responsibility for this explosive situation lies not with the unions but with the government,” the unions said in a televised statement.

The French government’s plan to raise the retirement age for most workers by two years came under opposition from a huge number of people. But Macron has decided to ignore the protests and not back down. Instead, the government rammed the legislation through the French National Assembly (parliament) last week without a vote, using a constitutional clause that allows the government to bypass a vote in the Assembly.

Under the new law, the retirement age for most workers will be 64 — one of the lowest in the industrialised world.

The retirement age in both the United Kingdom and the United States is 65 years. The US wants to raise it to 67 and Britain to 68 in another 10 years.

In France, from 2027, most workers will have to make social security contributions over 43 years instead of 42 in order to draw a full pension.

The proposal was unveiled in France in January and the government argued that it will be able to save $14.7 billion by 2030. France’s pension system costs the country nearly 14 percent of its GDP.

Like most French leaders, Macron is no stranger to street protests and has faced the ire of his opponents since he came to power in 2017. A two-term president, Macron has dealt with protesters from different corners of the French political spectrum over the last six years.

Though his handling of these situations led to a drastic fall in his popularity rating, Macron had still managed to narrowly win the presidential election of 2022. However, the challenge he faces currently could well turn out to be the toughest one of his political career.

France’s past presidents have also grappled with the pension issue with varying results.

When Jacques Chirac tried to reform the system in 1995, crippling strikes forced him to shelve the project even though 18 months later voters sacked his government. But in 2010 Nicolas Sarkozy succeeded in raising the retirement age from 60 to 62, overriding protests. Now Macron wants to raise it further to 64.

Protesters fear that it could be raised further in the coming days and may even reach 68, when few will be able to enjoy the pension benefits.

The developments in France are being watched closely in India and other western capitals. France is a strategic partner of India and its second largest supplier of arms, accounting for 29 percent of the weapons the country buys.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had visited Paris, setting aside protocol, to congratulate Macron personally within days of his becoming President of France in May 2017.

Modi was present at the airport to receive the French President when he visited India in 2018, and again went to Paris after Macron’s victory in the presidential elections of 2022.

According to the Minister of External Affairs, S Jaishankar, not only was France “extremely responsive to India’s concerns and priorities,” but it was a relation that was “free from sudden shifts and surprises,” unlike what India experienced with some other countries.

The political unrest in France is a cause for concern for many European countries as it comes when the West is trying to put up a united front against Russia in the Ukraine war.

France, the second largest European economy and a leading military power, is also a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.

If the street protests manage to put Macron on the backfoot, it could have a negative impact and bring out the fissures in other European countries to the surface.

That is a possibility no one in Europe would like to envisage when it is facing the biggest war in the continent since WWII.