President Emmanuel Macron’s decision Raising the statutory retirement age in France was approved by the country’s Constitutional Council on Friday, paving the way for the measure to be phased in in the autumn, but did little to quell popular anger against it.
In a much-anticipated VerdictThe council, which is reviewing the legislation to ensure it conforms with the Constitution, has rejected parts of Mr Macron’s pension overhaul but maintained its core – raising the age at which workers can start drawing a state pension, albeit not the full one, to 64, from 62.
“The text has reached the end of its democratic process,” said Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne said on Twitter after the verdict. “Tonight there is no winner and no loser.”
Most opponents of the law had not argued that raising the retirement age was itself unconstitutional; Instead, they accused the government of abusing legal tools to short-cut debates and ram the changes through Parliament, mainly by introducing the pension changes into a Social Security budget bill.
These tools were designed to avoid year-end funding gaps and avoid passing hugely consequential social legislation, critics argued.
But the council disagreed and said in a opinion that “the combined use” of these instruments is “unusual” but does not render the legislative process “unconstitutional”.
The verdict will ease Mr Macron after months of protests and strikes a bitter stalemate with the unions, who are vehemently opposed to the law.
Mr Macron has jeopardized much of his second-term legacy for raising the retirement age, despite its widespread unpopularity, and he will now be keen to get the matter over with.
But few expect the council’s decision to put a definitive end to the intense political and social turmoil that pension reform has unleashed, particularly since Macron decided to bypass a full vote to get it through Parliament sparked a no-confidence vote by his cabinet barely survived.
For unions, most opposition parties and many French people, raising the retirement age is – constitutional or not – constitutional simply unacceptableand many have vowed to keep challenging her.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, a prominent left-wing politician, said on Twitter that the verdict showed that the Council was “more attentive to the needs of the presidential monarchy than to those of the sovereign people” – a jab at Mr Macron, who has found it difficult to shake himself off the image of a distant and aloof leader.
“The fight goes on and must gather its forces,” added Mr. Mélenchon.
Marine Le Pen of the far-right National Rally said in a statement that passing the pension changes “would mark the definitive break between the French people and Emmanuel Macron”.
In the unappealable ruling, the nine-member council struck down what it called legislative tabs – six measures unrelated to budgetary matters and therefore deemed unsuitable for inclusion in a draft budget.
These included a provision that would force large companies to disclose how many older workers they employ and another that would have created a special contract for reduction Unemployment among older workers.
On Friday, Mr Macron invited unions to a meeting next week, but unions quickly declined.
in one opinionThey complained that many of the provisions removed by the Council had been added to soften the blow of age increase, although the government could still introduce them into a separate bill, which would then have to go through the normal parliamentary procedure.
“The law is even more unbalanced and violent than before,” Sophie Binet, the leader of the Confédération Générale du Travail, France’s second-biggest union, told reporters in Paris.
Unions have urged Mr Macron not to enact the raising of the retirement age and said they would not meet with him until after May 1 at the earliest – when they hope to organize widespread Labor Day demonstrations.
The verdict came a day after hundreds of thousands Demonstrators took to the streets again to denounce the overhaul. While the number of demonstrations and the number of workers taking part in strikes had declined somewhat, turnout was still substantial.
Some protests in recent weeks have turned violent and have been answered a stubborn police response.
Authorities had banned demonstrations outside the offices of the Constitutional Council in central Paris, and police in riot gear blocked a road leading to the building with barriers and vans on Friday.
Thousands of protesters gathered in cities across France ahead of the verdict; in Paris they gathered in a light drizzle in front of the town hall. Protesters booed when news of the verdict broke, chanting, “Constitutional or not, we don’t want this law.”
Few seemed surprised.
“To be honest, we weren’t expecting much,” said Pablo Guerrero, a 62-year-old tech guy hiding under an umbrella.
“We can only hope that this decision will give impetus to the protest movement,” he added. A similar reaction occurred last month when Mr Macron’s decision to bypass a vote in the lower house of Parliament prompted it days of wild unrest.
Unlike the Supreme Court in the United States, the Constitutional Council in France does not head the court system and none of its members are judges.
Most are former politicians or high-ranking officials who do not always have legal expertise; Council discussions and votes are not published and there is no dissenting opinion. This lack of transparency has fueled criticism that the council cannot be impartial and tends to side with the executive.
The current President of the Council is Laurent Fabius, a former Socialist Prime Minister. Other members include Jacqueline Gourault, who was one of Macron’s ministers for much of his first term; and Alain Juppé, a former Conservative prime minister who led a failed attempt to change France’s pension system in the 1990s.
“These are people with political experience who know what the consequences of their decisions can be,” said Bastien François, professor of political science at Paris-1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University. Former ministers and prime ministers, he noted, may have “didn’t want to see the Emperor without his clothes” by rejecting the President’s plans outright.
Mr Macron has until the end of the month to officially enact the law, minus the provisions that were scrapped by the Council.
Beginning in September, the law will gradually raise the legal age at which workers can receive a pension by three months per year, until it reaches 64 in 2030. It also speeds up an earlier change that increased the number of years workers must contribute to the system for a full pension.
But opponents cling to hope that continued pressure on Mr Macron and his government could still force him to withdraw. There is a precedent: in 2006, rocked by huge street protests, the French government never implemented a controversial youth employment contract although it had already become law.
On Friday, the council also declined a request for a special kind of referendum that had been tabled by Mr Macron’s opponents who wanted a nationwide vote on capping the retirement age at 62.
But that would have been a long and complex process — collecting signatures from at least 10 percent of voters, or around 4.8 million people, over nine months — and one that doesn’t automatically end in a referendum. Such procedures, known as joint-initiative referendums, have never been used in France.
The Council is expected to decide on a second, almost identical application in May.
Tom Novian contributed reporting.
