Explained | French Pension Reforms and Ensuing Riots

While roughly 80% of the French population has deemed the reform unjustified, Macron says that the reform is just and must be implemented.

President Macron, with the aim of increasing the retirement age of the workers, wanted to pass the bill in the National Assembly, but due to fewer chances of getting it passed, he used the course of his constitutional executive powers. This constitutional executive power allows the President to force the bill through without a vote in the National Assembly.   

Hundreds of thousands of people came to the streets of France to protest against the new retirement age law. At the start, this protest was peaceful, but later it turned violent. Angry protesters took over the streets in Paris and tried to pressure the lawmakers and Macron’s government to take back this unpopular law.    

Protesters gathered in the Place de Concorde halted traffic movements and sanitation workers in support of the protest stopped doing sanitation work and collection of garbage, leaving piles of foul-smelling rubbish across the capital and blockading Europe’s largest incineration sites. Some groups set street fires, smashed shop windows and demolished banks’ fronts. Similar types of scenes came from different cities, like Rennes, Nantes, Lyon and the southern port city of Marseille.   

Riot police are using tear gas, water cannons and different other measures to control these violent protests. Police have arrested hundreds of men involved in these protests. But for many human rights advocates, the police have overstepped their action because many protesters got badly injured by the action of the police, which aggravated the situation. 

The pension system of France

 According to the new retirement age law, the retirement age will increase from 62 to 64 years of age to avail of the pension system of France. The pension system in France is not as simple as it seems. It is a complex system. There are some criteria that are required to be fulfilled to get a pension. Here, 62 is the minimum retirement age, which has now increased to 64, and 67 is the maximum retirement age the worker needs to meet one more criterion to get the pension, which is minimum working years. In France, the minimum working year is 42 or 168 quarters. It means a worker in France, in normal conditions, can retire at the age of 62 only when he joins the workforce at the age of 20 to get the pension. The amount of pension payable to a retired worker is determined by the 25 best earning years of that worker. It is a maximum of 50% of the average of 25 best-earning years.  

Why increasing the retirement age in France is a necessity? 

Change in the retirement age was the key priority in Macron’s second term. For him, it is rational from a demographic and economic point of view.  The Government of France is of the view that the current pension system is not good for the economy and, if it continues, then it could collapse because the economy of France is not in a position to bear the high burden of the current pension system. Macron in February stated that “People know that yes, on average, you have to work a little longer, all of them, because otherwise, we won’t be able to finance our pensions properly”. Some important reasons favouring an increase in the retirement age are illustrated below- 

• A huge percentage of the French GDP is spent on pensions. According to Statista, 13.8% of the GDP of France goes to pension, which is one of the highest in the world. The number of people who are paying taxes or working in comparison to pensioners is decreasing. Therefore, a greater number of people are heading towards the group who are getting money as pension from the government but are not required to do any productive work. In 2000, there were 2.1 working people for every pensioner, whereas, in 2023, it has decreased to 1.7 working people for every pensioner. This increases the burden on the younger generation to not only fund the older ones but also increase productivity with a relatively smaller number of workers.  

• If we look at the fertility rate of France, it is 1.83 (2020). The fertility rate in France is less than 2.1, a rate which is assumed to provide a stable population, which shows that in future, the proportion of old age people in French society is going to increase. Therefore, to support the French economy, there will be less adult working class than today. 

Why people are protesting?

The reason for the protests in France is obviously the increase in the age of retirement, but the question is why French society is not accepting it. French society considered as it gives heavy emphasis on quality of life, work-life balance and a comfortable retirement. Several news reports are putting forward the reason behind the protest, as the French are very protective of their universal health care and generous pensions and the increase in the retirement age is infringing on that protection. French society had chosen a lifestyle of working hard, paying high taxes but retiring at a relatively young age with a high standard of living.  

If we look at the list of retirement ages of similar European countries, we find that the retirement age of 62 in France is one of the lowest. The retirement age in Denmark, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom is 67 years, 65 years and 7 months, and 67 years and 66 years respectively. However, it has one of the lowest retirement age in European countries but there is fear in people that if the government get a chance to increase it, then further raising of the retirement age will come after that. So, basically, they are fearing that it is not the last time but it’s the start of a storm in their after-retirement leisure life. 

Macron’s government is not only facing protests in the streets of France but also in the National Assembly. A no-confidence motion was put forward against his government in the Lower House of the Parliament, which he very narrowly survived. 278 MPs voted for the no-confidence motion, just short of the 287 votes required to topple the government.

The manner in which France is protesting, and the popularity of Macron is surely dropping. According to an IFOP poll, roughly 80% of the population has deemed this law unjustified. During the press conference in Spain, Macron said that reform is just and responsible and France must carry this out. Therefore, for the time being, it seems that the government is sticking to its position and not going to change its course.

_{(Ashish Keserwani has an MA in Political Science from Indra Gandhi National Open University. He is currently a Research Scholar Pursuing PhD from Amity University, Noida)}