The Constitutional Council had the fate of pension reform in its hands. The nine wise men finally validated the essentials of the pension reform on Friday, including its flagship measure of raising the legal retirement age to 64, while rejecting some measures of the government project such as the creation of a “senior index “. The rue de Montpensier institution unsurprisingly censured several “social riders” who “had no place in the referred law” which is of a financial nature. Among these: the index on the employment of seniors, which was to be compulsory from this year for companies with more than 1,000 employees, and whose non-publication was to be liable to financial penalties.
Also censored, the CDI seniors, an addition by right-wing senators, which was to facilitate the hiring of long-term job seekers over 60. The institution chaired by the former Socialist Prime Minister Laurent Fabius did not follow the parliamentarians of the left or of the National Rally, who had pleaded a misuse of parliamentary procedure to have the law adopted. A choice which “does not ignore, in itself, any constitutional requirement”, according to the Council, which however evokes the “unusual character” of the accumulation of procedures aimed at restricting the debates.
The Council also rejected the draft referendum of shared initiative carried by the left (RIP), which hoped for a green light to begin the collection of 4.8 million signatures with a view to a hypothetical and unprecedented consultation of the French to thwart the government’s plan. The left-wing parliamentarians tabled a second text on Thursday, on which the Constitutional Council will rule on May 3.
The word of the Council was particularly awaited by Emmanuel Macron and his government, who hope to be able to overcome the dispute rooted since January, and to resume the march of a quinquennium seriously hampered from its first year. Decisions, not subject to appeal and to which the social movement and the political class had been suspended for several weeks, risk however not extinguishing the mobilizations. “The struggle continues,” declared the rebellious leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon after the validation by the Constitutional Council. “The political fate of the pension reform is not sealed,” said Marine Le Pen, president of the RN group in the Assembly.
In Paris, a rally began on the forecourt of the Hôtel de Ville at the call of several unions including the CGT and FO. Several hundred young people were also demonstrating in the capital and should join them at the end of the day. The police fear overflows. Blockages continued on Friday: disruption of traffic around Rouen, blocking of a food platform in the suburbs of Strasbourg, operation “free toll” by 150 to 200 demonstrators in Gironde…
