Pensions: flash promulgation, indignant unions

Emmanuel Macron will address the French on Monday after the express promulgation of the pension reform which outraged unions and oppositions on Saturday and showed the president’s desire to quickly relaunch his second five-year term, hampered by the social and political crisis.

The “Law of April 14, 2023 on the amending financing of Social Security for 2023”, signed Friday evening by the Head of State after the validation of the essentials of the reform by the Constitutional Council, was published in the Official Journal very early Saturday.

The Élysée announced in the process that the Head of State would address the French during a speech Monday evening, a priori at 8:00 p.m.

Emmanuel Macron will speak “in a logic of appeasement”, to “take stock” of the three months of crisis and “also look at what has advanced alongside pensions”, promised on TF1 government spokesman Olivier Véran, citing the drop in unemployment and taxes.

The Prime Minister launched on Saturday: “in the weeks and months to come, around the President of the Republic, we are ready to accelerate” the reforms.

“We want to build a France of full employment”, “guarantee equal opportunities”, “act” for health and even education, hammered Elisabeth Borne during a National Council of the presidential Renaissance party in Paris.

But, refusing to enter the post-crisis “agenda” of the executive, all the unions have expressed their “determination” to continue the fight against the raising of the legal age to 64 years. Starting by declining an invitation to the Élysée on Tuesday.

The ultra-rapid publication of the reform, while the inter-union, united for three months of protest, “had asked” solemnly “to the president” not to promulgate the law “, is “totally shameful”, denounced the general secretary of the CGT Sophie Binet.

Emmanuel Macron “is becoming the president of chaos” and “opens a boulevard to the National Rally”, she lashed out.

“The contempt returned to the workers will have been constant”, reacted his counterpart at the CFDT Laurent Berger.

Marine Le Pen pinned an “umpteenth provocation against the French”.

It is an “absurd display of arrogance” for the leader of LFI Jean-Luc Mélenchon, and a sign of “febrility” according to the number one of the PS Olivier Faure who promised a “democratic harassment” to return to the 64 years old . Socialist deputies and senators have planned to table a legislative text asking for the repeal of the reform.

LFI deputy Eric Coquerel told AFP that his group had initiated discussions with the independents of Liot and the whole of Nupes with a view to a potential filing of a motion of censure.

Olivier Véran, for his part, confirmed that the gradual transition to the retirement age from 62 to 64 would begin well in September, at the rate of one quarter per year. The reassessment of certain small retirement pensions will be launched at the same time.

Barely had the reform been promulgated, violence again punctuated a demonstration in Rennes on Saturday where businesses were vandalized, two cars burned in addition to clashes with the police.

In Paris, 300 people marched in a calm atmosphere in the 19th arrondissement, with cries in particular of “Paris standing up, rise up”.

The inter-union is betting on the traditional May 1 meeting which it wishes to transform into an “exceptional and popular mobilization day” against the heart of the reform, retirement at 64.

The boss of the CFDT wishes “that on May 1, we break the house in number of demonstrators in the street”. “On the decrees, the concrete implementation of the measures, we are not going to let go of the government,” he told Le Parisien.

In the meantime, the four SNCF unions announced “a day of expression of railway anger” on Thursday.

And the CGT mentioned actions in all sectors on Thursday as well, as well as on April 28.

The 12th day of mobilization last Thursday had delivered the second lowest mobilization score since the beginning of the movement (380,000 demonstrators according to the Ministry of the Interior, 1.5 million according to the CGT).

Reconnecting with the unions will not be easy. “There will be resentment, scars”, slips a close friend of the head of state.

And to advance with what majority? Elisabeth Borne shared the conclusions of her consultations with Emmanuel Macron this week.

A status quo is emerging: “If the time is not for coalitions, majorities are possible, project by project, to offer solutions to the French,” said the head of government on Saturday.