Thousands of people demonstrate in front of the Place de la Republique against the reform of the pension system, on Thursday, January 19, 2023, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)
PA
PARIS
France’s prime minister insisted on Sunday that the government’s plan to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 “is no longer negotiable,” further angering opposition parliamentarians and unions planning new protests this week.
Raising the retirement age is a central project of President Emmanuel Macron’s second term, but it is encountering widespread popular resistance — more than 1 million people marched against it earlier this month — and misunderstandings about what it will mean for workers. .
In an interview with France-Info on Sunday, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said age “is no longer negotiable.”
Retiring at 64 and extending the number of years necessary to obtain a full pension “is the compromise that we proposed after listening to employers’ and unions’ organizations,” he said.
After Borne’s comments, support grew for an online initiative launched by a union against the retirement plan. France’s eight main unions were in talks on Sunday about a joint response to the prime minister’s comments, according to officials from the FO and CFDT unions.
Lawmaker Manuel Bompard, whose France Insoumisa party is leading the parliamentary push against the reform, called for “greater than possible” participation in upcoming strikes and protests.
“We have to be in the streets on Tuesday,” he said on BFM television on Sunday.
The government says the reform is necessary to keep the pension system solvent as life expectancy has risen and birth rates have fallen.
“Our goal is to ensure that by 2030 we have a financially balanced system,” Borne said.
The project will be analyzed by a parliamentary commission on Monday and will go to a full debate in the National Assembly on February 6. Opponents have tabled 7,000 amendments that will further complicate the debate.
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