France set to raise retirement age after constitutional test clears, as protesters vow to continue fight

French President EmmanuelMacron's flagship pension reform, which triggered weeks ofnationwide protests, received the Constitutional Council's greenlight on Friday and can now be signed into law.

The legislation, which pushes the age at which one can draw a fullpension to 64 from 62, is deeply unpopular in France and hastriggered huge protests.

But in what will be a major relief to Macron and hisgovernment, the country's Constitutional Council gave its approval with just some minor caveats.

Labour Minister Olivier Dussopt said the law would enterinto force on Sept. 1 as initially planned, brushing off requestsby unions not to promulgate it in the face of huge publicopposition.

Opinion polls show a vast majority oppose the reform, aswell as the fact that the government invoked Article 49.3 of theconstitution, allowing it to pass the bill without a final votein parliament that it might have lost.

WATCH | Protesters decry move to approve controversial pension reforms:

Protests and anger in Paris over pension reform decision

1 year ago

Duration 1:05

Demonstrators marched on Friday, the day France's Constitutional Council approved French President Emmanuel Macron's controversial pension reform plan that would raise the retirement age.

Protests continue outside Paris city hall

Protesters gathered outside Paris's city hall, holding bannersreading "climate of anger" and "no end to the strikes until thereform is pulled" when the Constitutional Council's verdict wasannounced.

"We just hope we'll see a response like the one thatfollowed the 49.3, that the deep anger of the people, workersand studentsresurfaces, and that people get back out on thestreets," said unionized train driver Farid Boukhenfer at theParis rally.

The council said the government's actions were in line withthe constitution and approved raising the legal retirement age,with only peripheral measures meant to boost employment forolder workers struck down on the grounds that they did notbelong in this legislation.

Macron and his government hope such an outcome woulddiscourage further trade union-led protests, which have at timesturned violent.

"The country must continue to move forward, work, and facethe challenges that await us," Macron said earlier this week.

Hardline unions and the opposition have warned they will notback down.

"The fight continues," hard-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchonsaid.

Opposition tables another referendum bid

Separately, the Constitutional Council rejected a proposalby the opposition to organize a citizens' referendum on the pension reform.

The opposition has tabled another bid for a referendum,which should be reviewed by the council early May.

Political observers say the widespread discontent over thegovernment's reform could have longer-term repercussions,including a possible boost for the far right.

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen wrote on Twitter that "thepolitical fate of the pension reform is not sealed," urgingvoters to back those who oppose it in the next election so thatthey can scrap it.

Only a third of workers retire at 62

Macron says the French must work longer or else the pensionbudget will fall billions of euros into the red each year by theend of the decade.

But the pension system is a cornerstone of France'scherished social protection model, and trade unions say the moneycan be found elsewhere, including by taxing the rich moreheavily.

While attention has focused on the retirement age of 62,only 36 per centof French workers retire at that age and another 36 per cent already retire older on account of requirements to pay into thesystem for at least 42 years in order to be able to claim a fullpension.

That means the normal retirement age for a French worker whostarted working at the age of 22 was 64.5, marginally above aEuropean Union average of 64.3, according to OECD figures basedon 2020 data.