- French President Emmanuel Macron has broken his silence following widespread protests and strikes over his government’s push to reform pensions through parliament without a vote.
- “Do you think I’m happy with doing this reform? No,” he said in a televised interview on TF1 and France 2, but said the pension system was broken and “the longer we wait the worse the situation will be. ”
- Macron acknowledged that people felt there was an “injustice” in being asked to work longer as companies made record profits and that he would look to ensure they contributed more.
French President Emmanuel Macron is seen on screen as he speaks during a TV interview from the Elysee Palace, in Paris, on March 22, 2023.
Ludovic Marin | Afp | Getty Images
French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday strongly defended his reforms to the pension system, but said the government could do better with its policy.
“Do you think I’m happy with doing this reform? No,” he said in a televised interview on the TF1 and France 2 channels, his first public statement in the country since forcing the bill through parliament in no vote
The move intensified widespread protests across the country that resulted in hundreds of people being detained after clashes with police.
“I can sweep the dust under the rug like many before,” said Macron, who continued that the system is no longer balanced and that the number of retirees should be 20 million in the 2030s. “The longer we wait, the worse the situation will be.”
Macron said the bill must be implemented by the end of the year. It still needs to be reviewed by France’s constitutional court.
If passed, the key changes will see the national retirement age raised from 62 to 64 and the number of years a person must work before receiving a full pension will go to 43.
Unions strongly oppose the bill, which they argue disproportionately affects manual workers, women and low-wage workers while corporations and the super-rich have benefited under Macron’s business reforms.
The strikes were carried out by teachers, transport workers and refinery workers, who took action obstructed fuel delivery in some places. Industrial action by garbage collectors led to piles of garbage in Paris as a striking symbol of discontent. A major strike and protest is scheduled to take place on Thursday.
Pedestrians walk past littered bins in the 5th district of Paris as garbage collectors stage a revolt against pension reforms, leaving many streets in the capital littered with smelly garbage March 17, 2023.
Bertrand Guay | Afp | Getty Images
Macron said on Wednesday that he understood there was a “sense of injustice” and that working people felt they were being asked to put in more effort as businesses made money.
“There is a level of cynicism when we have large corporations that generate excess profits and use that money to buy back their own shares,” he said, according to a translation by France24.
“I will ask the government to work on an extraordinary contribution so that the money, when there is a surplus, the companies willing to buy back their own shares, that their workers should benefit from that.”
He mentioned a government tax on energy company profits to fund a price cap, but stopped short of committing to a future tax on “excess profits,” saying “we have to find the right system, they must pay more to their employees, there should be more contribution to this effort.”
Macron also said he wants to encourage people to benefit from the labor market through better support for childcare, transport and housing.
Members of parliament, left, hold placards and sing the Marseillaise, French national anthem, as French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne arrives to give a speech on the pensions reform bill at the National Assembly in Paris, France, March 16, 2023.
Pascal Rossignol | Reuters
Opposition lawmakers on the left and right wings oppose changes to the pension system, as do some of the center and center-right parties that typically support Macron.
However, they failed to pass two no-confidence motions against the government in the National Assembly, France’s lower house of parliament, on Monday. A motion of no confidence could lead to the ouster of Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, who has faced severe criticism in France for enacting the use of Article 49.3, which can pass a bill through the National Assembly without a majority vote.
Macron, who has four years left on his presidential term, will likely have to hold new parliamentary elections. These may further weaken his ability to implement future policies; however, he has already spent considerable political capital on pension reforms.
A Journal du Dimanche poll over the weekend put his approval rating at 28%, the lowest since the gilet jaunes protested in 2019. Meanwhile, an Elabe poll on Monday found that 68% of respondents wanted to pass the no- confidence vote at 69 % believe that the use of Article 49.3 is a rejection of democracy.
Striking members of the General Confederation of Labor (CGT) union set up fires and blockades towards the industrial and port of Fos-sur-Mer, France, on Wednesday, March 22, 2023. Released France’s strategic stockpiles of oil products today. months as the latest round of strike action over pension reforms disrupts the country’s fuel distribution network.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
In Wednesday’s interview, Macron said he respects unions and that people have a legitimate right to protest, and that the government should take their views into account.
But he condemned the use of violence and threats of attacks against MPs and mayors, and — comparing the situation with riots in the US Capitol, protests in Brazil and the Netherlands and previous protests in France, said that “we cannot accept factions that cannot be obeyed. .”
He also accused unions of failing to negotiate or compromise on changes to the pension system, saying the government had been told “no reform.” Macron has aimed to raise the pension age since he took office in 2017, and a previous set of changes to the pension system announced in 2019 have been scrapped.
He said the current plan is the result of a parliamentary process and was adopted in the senate, the upper house of parliament.
“I do it out of a sense of responsibility,” he told reporters in France.