The French Constitutional Council has validated this Friday the essentials of the controversial pension reform, including the delay in two years - from 62 to 64 - the legal retirement age. This ruling represents a clear victory for President Emmanuel Macron, although it carries the risk of exacerbating the protest in the street.
The high legal body, made up of nine members, censured six minor aspects that must be corrected but that do not distort the project. More important has been that the Constitutional Council has rejected the petition to collect signatures and organize a referendum, within a year, so that retirement is set at 62 years.
The President of the Republic now plans to promulgate the law in a very short period of time, less than 48 hours. There is a risk that the response in the street will ignite.
Macron has invited the unions to go to the Élysée on Tuesday to talk and calm things down. But the union leaders are not now for dialogue, at least not before the great mobilization that they will organize for May Day.
Hours before the Constitutional Council ruling, Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte visited the reconstruction works of Notre Dame Cathedral, badly damaged by a fire four years ago. A group of CGT trade unionists held a protest on the Seine, aboard a bateau mouche, one of the typical tourist boats. They carried a banner in which they claimed a return to retirement at 60 years of age.
The president could barely hear the screams because those responsible for the reconstruction were speaking. Macron congratulated himself that the "stool" on the roof is now ready to place the arrow that destroyed the fire. The Head of State recalled that, when the incident occurred, everyone doubted that they could meet the deadlines to repair the cathedral. "Never give up and stay focused, that's my motto," he said. His words were interpreted as an indirect allusion to the pension reform. Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne was also booed during a visit to a supermarket in Hanches, a small town in the Eure-et-Loire department, west of Paris.
