The controversial pension law passed the test of the French Constitutional Court
The French Council of State – refused to check the legality of the EU emissions law under the French constitution (Photo: Wikipedia)
The contested pension reform initiated by French President Emmanuel Macron passed the constitutional test of resistance on Friday and may already be promulgated in the coming days, Reuters and France Press report. The legislation, which rises the retirement age from 62 to 64, is deeply unpopular in France and has sparked huge protests. But in what would be a major sense of relief for Macron and his government, the country’s Constitutional Council gave the green light. The Council declared that the government’s actions are in accordance with the Constitution and approved the increase of the legal retirement age. Macron and his government hope such an outcome will deter further union-led protests, which have sometimes turned violent.
“The country must continue to advance, to work and to face the challenges that await us,” Macron said earlier this week. But unions and the opposition warned they would not back down and asked Macron not to enact it. Protesters gathered in front of Paris City Hall, carrying placards reading “climate of anger” and “strike without end until the reform is withdrawn”, at the moment when the verdict of the Constitutional Council was announced. Separately, the Constitutional Council rejected an opposition proposal to organize a citizens’ referendum on the pension reform. The opposition has submitted a new request for the referendum, which should be reviewed by the Council in early May. Political observers say widespread discontent over government reform could have longer-term repercussions, including a possible boost to the far right. The main French opposition parties are determined to continue their fight against the pension reform project that was just validated on Friday by the Constitutional Council, warning in particular against the risk of violence, AFP notes. “The fight continues”, reacted the head of the radical left Jean-Luc Mélenchon, while the head of the extreme right Marine Le Pen estimated that “the political fate of the pension reform is not sealed”, after this decision of the Council taken after months of demonstrations and political battles against this flagship project of Emmanuel Macron’s second five-year term. The leader of the communist party, Fabien Roussel, asked the executive “not to promulgate” this law, already validated by the Constitutional Council. “I fear an eruption,” he warned, while some demonstrations against the project were marked by violence and voluntary arson. “If he promulgates it, the president will no longer be able to govern the country,” said a representative of the radical left LFI party, Mathilde Panot. Instead, the head of the traditional right, Eric Ciotti, called on “all political forces (…) to accept” the decision, also considering that “the censorship of certain articles sanctions the methodological errors of the government.”
By Paul Bumman
