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Saturday, February 8, 2025

Reshaping Perspectives and Catalyzing Diplomatic Evolution

French unions have staged one of the biggest protests against pension reform Fox News

Demonstrations took place in Paris and in 250 municipalities across France. Organizers estimate that up to 700,000 people took part, down from the one million attendees at the height of the protests in April. Strikes affected the education sector and public transport, and railway and airport workers took an active part in the strikes. A third of all flights and one in ten trains have been canceled in the country. The unions say they are supported by almost 60% of the French population, so they will not give up the protests until the reform is completely repealed, which “condemns those who already live in extreme poverty to poverty”. The protesters are proposing to solve the state’s economic problems by raising taxes for the wealthy and introducing new taxes on tobacco products.

Mass protests have been going on for several months, and the new actions have already become the 14th in a row. At the same time, observers note that the protests have become “one of the last chances” to consolidate all efforts to oppose the reform. After the changes came into force in April, the protest fuse subsided a bit, with the last major protests taking place on May Day. Union leaders themselves understand that “it is very difficult to mobilize all supporters in six months”, so the next few days will be “the last battle against pension reform”. At the same time, they expect to still be able to convince the government and the president to cancel the pension reform.

The demonstrations were a response to the publication of the text of the pension reform in the “Official Journal” of the State

The protests were a response to the publication of the text of the pension reform in the state’s “Official Gazette”, which means the changes will take effect on September 1. Additionally, the protests are timed to coincide with a parliamentary vote scheduled for Thursday, where they will consider a bill proposed by the opposition LIOT faction to scrap government reform. Observers note that the opposition does not have much chance of success, since the political forces supporting Macron in parliament have a confident majority. And street protests are unlikely to change this balance of power. Moreover, the parliamentary social affairs committee has already rejected the articles of the opposition bill, which contained a proposal to reverse the increase in the minimum retirement age. If the passage of the bill is blocked, the opposition promises to propose an initiative to declare a vote of no confidence in the government, and also threatens new demonstrations.

The French authorities firmly assure that they do not intend to make any concessions to the demonstrators. They called the actions “illegal and unconstitutional” because the reform was approved by the French Constitutional Court. Macron and his supporters assume that if the reform had not been passed, the French budget would simply not have been able to meet the costs. With France’s public debt at an all-time high of around three trillion euros, the country cannot afford the costly additional pension payments, which experts put at 15 billion euros. According to observers, the government now intends to choose a wait-and-see tactic, hoping that the summer holiday season and the expected slight drop in inflation indicators can divert the vector of attention from the unpopular reform. This is also indicated by the growing popularity ratings of Emmanuel Macron.

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