Pension Reform in France: Macron and Demonstrators Resume Epic Tussle Begun Over 30 Years Ago

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misbahulalam
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Pension Reform in France: Macron and Demonstrators Resume Epic Tussle Begun Over 30 Years Ago

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More than 1 million people poured onto the streets in France on Thursday to protest the government’s plans to reform the pension regime. The bill, which was presented to the Council of Ministers on Monday, aims to raise the minimum retirement age from 62 to 64 years old starting from 2030. It would also bring an end to some of the country’s specialized retirement regimes, whereby certain workers get bigger pension pots and to retire earlier than others (rail or post workers, for example). It is due to be debated at the French assembly on 30 January. Pension reform is one of the defining issues of Emmanuel Macron’s second five-year term, as he looks to become the president who resolves a quandary that has troubled French presidents since the early 1990s.

The policy was one of the central pledges of his 2022 presidential campaign, after he postponed it due to the double pressure of the streets and the Coved pandemic. It is set to be hotly Phone Number List
contested by trade unions, activists and politicians from the left and center. In this regard, Thursday’s massive turnout was but one of a series of actions in what is expected to be a long tug of war between the government and the streets. The next strike is slated for 31 January, and in the days running up to it, trade unions have announced plans to disrupt the railway network, ports infrastructure, and the oil and nuclear sectors. So who will prevail, the people out in the streets or the government? As a historian specialized in French social movements, I can attest the evolution of the past 30 years does not play in the strikers’ favor, notwithstanding some notable victories.

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A weekly email for Europeans by European scholars Demonstrators wave banners and a puppet at the effigy of Prime Minister Alain Juppe Demonstrators wave banners and a puppet at the effigy of Prime Minister Alain Juppe, on December 12, 1995. Derrick Ceric/AFP 1995: the great showdown against pension reform Many of those taking to the streets today will be hoping to replicate the spectacular demonstrations of November-December 1995 – the largest in the country since May 68. At the time, the right-wing government led by Jacques Chirac (1995-2007) sought to impose an austerity package known by the name of its then prime minister, Alain Juppe. Intended to tighten to public purse’s strings ahead of France’s adoption of the euro currency, Plan Juppe's reforms would have – among others – raised employees’ contribution to retirement funds and aligned specialized retirement regimes with that of the general public.
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