Paris, Jan. 30 (BNA): France’s prime minister insisted on Sunday that the government’s plan to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 was “no longer negotiable,” angering parliamentary opponents and unions planning new mass protests and disruptive strikes this week. .
Raising the retirement age is part of a broad bill that is the main measure of President Emmanuel Macron’s second term.
The bill faces widespread public resistance — more than a million people demonstrated against it earlier this month — and a misunderstanding about what it would mean for French workers today, the AP reports.
“Age is no longer negotiable,” Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said in an interview with France-Info radio on Sunday.
She said retiring at age 64 and extending the number of years needed to earn a full pension “is the compromise we proposed after listening to employers’ organizations and associations”.
A union-led online petition against the pension plan saw a surge in new signings after Bourne’s comments. France’s eight major unions are in discussions on Sunday about a joint response to their remarks, according to officials at the FO and CFDT unions.
MP Manuel Bompard, whose party “France Unbroken” is leading the parliamentary pressure against reform, called for “the largest possible turnout” in the upcoming strikes and protests.
“We should be on the streets on Tuesday,” he said on BFM television on Sunday.
The government says the reform is needed to keep the pension system fulfilling as life expectancy in France has grown and birth rates have fallen.
“Our goal is to ensure that in 2030 we have a fiscally balanced system,” Born said.
Unions and left-wing parties want big corporations or wealthier families to step in more to balance the pension budget instead.
Bourne proposed opening up adjustments to how the reform would address the time people spend from their working lives to have children or pursue an education. Critics of the plan say women are unfairly targeted. Bourne disagreed, but said, “We are in the process of analyzing the situation.”
The bill goes before a parliamentary committee on Monday, and has a full debate in the National Assembly on February 6. Opponents have submitted 7,000 proposed amendments that would further complicate the debate.