The main components of President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform were approved by France’s constitutional court on Friday, allowing him to execute the unpopular revisions that have provoked months of protests and strikes.
The nine-member Constitutional Council decided that important clauses, including raising the retirement age from 62 to 64, were legal and upheld them.
Six minor issues were turned down, including one that would have required big businesses to disclose the number of persons over 55 they employ as well as another that would have created a special contract just for older workers.
The move is seen as a success for Macron, but observers claim it has come at a significant personal cost to the 45-year-old while wreaking months of havoc on the nation with occasionally violent protests that have injured hundreds.
The president’s approval ratings are almost at an all-time low, and many voters were horrified by his choice to ignore dissenting public opinion and drive the pensions reform through the lower house of parliament without a vote.
Four years after a horrific fire destroyed the Gothic masterpiece, Macron declared, “Stay the course, that’s my motto,” as he surveyed repair work at the Notre-Dame church on Friday.
Up to 10,000 people are expected to gather once more in Paris on Friday night, and police are bracing for additional violence and vandalism due to the presence of several hundred left-wing radicals.
A short distance from the Louvre museum in the heart of the French city, the Constitutional Council has been fortified with barriers, and scores of riot police are stationed outside to keep watch.
With labor leaders declaring they would obey the court’s verdict on Friday and support among regular workers dwindling, it is unclear whether the months-long fight by trade unions to halt the changes will continue.
Jean-Luc Melenchon, the head of the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party, posted on Twitter that “the fight continues and must gather force.”
Marine Le Pen, the leader of the far-right National Rally (RN), emphasized that the reform’s fate was “not sealed” despite Friday’s decision.
10,000 tons of uncollected trash were left in the streets of Paris due to a garbage workers’ strike last month, and regular stoppages have been affecting rail services, oil refineries, and schools since January.
The latest day of union-led protest saw about 380,000 people take to the streets nationwide on Thursday, according to the interior ministry.
However, that was a small portion of the almost 1.3 million protesters that turned out in March.
The court rejected an attempt by opposition MPs to force a referendum on a different pension law that would have kept the retirement age at 62 in a second judgment on Friday.
The majority of France’s European neighbors, many of which have raised the retirement age to 65 or higher, are ahead of her at the moment.
The law is criticized for being unjust to young, unskilled workers and for undermining workers’ rights to a lengthy retirement, according to those who oppose it.
France has an 82-year-old life expectancy on average.
Eric Woerth, a senior member of the ruling party, spoke on behalf of many of the government’s supporters on Friday when he expressed his optimism that eventually the public will recognize the necessity for the change but confessed that “we have not convinced people.”
Two-thirds of French people, according to polls, are opposed to working for another two years.
“Once the volcano has cooled down and people look at things with a bit more distance, maybe in the back of their minds they’ll say, ‘maybe they were right’… the French pension system needed unpopular decisions to conserve it,” he told Europe 1 radio.
According French official statistics, annual pension deficits are projected to reach 13.5 billion euros by 2030, and Macron has repeatedly declared the reform “necessary” to prevent them.
“I’m proud of the French social model, and I defend it, but if we want to make it sustainable, we have to produce more,” he said Wednesday during a trip to the Netherlands.
“We have to re-industrialize the country. We have to decrease unemployment and we have to increase the quantity of work being delivered in the country. This pension reform is part of it.”
