French President Emmanuel Macron has never seemed so weakened.
For several months now he has been facing social discontent linked to an ambitious pension reform. This week the situation escalated after he decided to force the program into effet.
After the Assembly (the equivalent of the U.S. House) rejected two motions of censure in response to its use of Article 49.3 of the Constitution to pass the pension reform without a vote, Parliament definitively adopted the program on March 20.
Following this tactic, the Macron government managed to survive a no-confidence vote.
Strikes Over Pay-as-You-Go Pension System
The reform is a new version of the pay-as-you-go pension system, designed to shore up the country's finances.
The flagship measure of the reform is a gradual lowering of the legal retirement age.
The legal retirement age will indeed be gradually raised from 62 to 64, at the rate of 3 months a year from Sept. 1, 2023, until 2030. But disabled workers will be able to retire from age 55, and those on disability from age 60.
The reform also extends the contribution period to 43 years beginning in 2027 (adding one quarter per year). But no one will have to work for more than 44 years.
Macron, who wants the main measures to be effective by Sept. 1, now will enact the bill into law.
But the unions, which have mobilized for the first time in 12 years, are not giving up. They have called for a day of protest for Thursday, March 23. Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said that 12,000 law enforcers would be mobilized throughout France, about 5,000 of them to be deployed in Paris.
He also called on the police "not to respond to provocations from the far left,” which he says seeks "to destabilize the country.”
The French climate is tense.
Elon Musk, who has gained influence on the geopolitical scene since the Russian war in Ukraine, has just given his support to Macron. He says that the French president is right to reform pensions because the retirement age is too low.
That's what the Tesla (TSLA) CEO said on a thread on Twitter. A user posted a critical message about Macron following a short video of violent demonstrations posted by another Twitter user. The video poster said the images were from the strikes against the pension reform in France.
'Retirement Age in France Is Too Low'
"Looks like people have had enough of dictators pretending to be democratic leaders," the user who posted the critical message commented.
Musk disagreed.
"Retirement age in France is too low," the billionaire said. "That’s a legit issue."
His comment sparked mixed comments from Twitter users.
"In a sane world a person should never have to work past sixty. Thats a legit issue," commented one user.
"People shouldn’t have to work past 60 if they don’t want to! They should be enjoying the rest of their lives," agreed another user.
But another user thinks that "the issue can't be reduced only to age."
"France has the highest social tax rates, a high unemployment of people over 50, and 70% of the population and 90% of workers are against this measure. Democracy must be respected, at last, especially in France given it's history," she said.
This is not the first time that Musk has supported Macron on this issue. In January, the entrepreneur said the French president was doing what had to be done in view of medical progress, which has lengthened life expectancy.
"Macron is doing the difficult, but right thing," the billionaire tweeted on Jan. 21. "The retirement age of 62 was set when lifespans were much shorter. It is impossible for a small number of workers to support a massive number of retirees."
