The French National Assembly approved on Thursday a non-binding resolution calling for the repeal of the 2023 pension reform, which raised the legal retirement age to 64.
Speaking from the podium, group leader Stéphane Peu condemned the increase in the legal retirement age to 64, which was adopted without a vote in March 2023 thanks to the application of Article 49, paragraph 3 of the Constitution. “This is the biggest blow to democracy since the French people’s vote was rejected in the 2005 referendum,” he said.
Adopted by 198 votes to 35 with the support of the left, the National Assembly and part of the centrist group in Lyon, the resolution will have no legal force. But the communists hope to use it as political leverage to revive protests, as Thursday is the day of demonstrations and strikes called by the CGT.
Around 165 gathering points have been planned in France. In Paris, the march will begin at 2 p.m. at the Military Academy and pass by the site where negotiations on pension reform are continuing.
The French Communist Party (CFP) is demanding that the reform be scrapped or that a referendum be held.
“The French have a memory and have not turned the page,” Peu said, beginning his speech to a virtually empty hall.
The leader of the Communist faction demanded that the government respect the results of the vote on the resolution by cancelling the reform or holding a referendum. “We will never give up on this unfair and unjustified reform,” his colleague from LFI Mathilde Panot said.
“Demographics and increased life expectancy are factors that determine the income and expenditure of our pension system. Whether you like it or not,” Astrid Panossian-Bouvet, Minister of Labour, replied.
“You are telling us: “Okay, we are going ahead, but let’s offer a symbolic repeal,” responded Macron’s party member Stéphanie Rist, calling it a “farce.”
The text “confirms the urgent need to repeal the most regressive measures” of the law of April 14, 2023, namely “raising the legal retirement age from 62 to 64 and extending the contribution period to 43 years from 2027.”
“A simple declaration of principles,” criticised Theo Bernhardt (RN), reproaching the left for not supporting his group’s initiatives to repeal the law.
RN, along with the Lio group and La France Insoumise, launched various parliamentary initiatives to secure a vote, but without success. The latest was an initiative by LFI at the end of November. The La France Insoumise bill was not adopted due to obstruction by the government.
The issue of pensions came back to the fore in January thanks to a compromise reached between Prime Minister François Bayrou and the Socialist Party (PS) group in the Assembly.
The latter agreed not to censure his government in exchange for a number of promises, including the resumption of pension reform. But enthusiasm quickly gave way to disappointment. Calling for a discussion “without taboos or dogmas,” the Prime Minister first set the goal of achieving financial balance by 2030, then closed the door on a return to the 62-year retirement age. The Force Ouvriere (FO) and CGT unions left the negotiations at the outset.
The organisations remaining at the negotiating table plan to conclude their work on June 17. At this stage, Medef has not expressed any willingness to meet the demands of the trade unions, which, in particular, want to secure early retirement for women with children or for people who have worked in difficult or exhausting conditions.
For their part, Socialist MPs are once again threatening to censor the Bayrou government if it does not present a possible agreement between the social partners to parliament.
