France paralysed as unions slog it out with Macron over pensions

Emmanuel Macron will be hoping that this week’s freezing winter weather comes to his aid as a day of protest on Thursday by France’s powerful trade union movement in response to moves to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 gets underway.

Millions of public sector workers, led by railway staff, teachers and air-traffic controllers, are expected to walk out, backed by millions more employed in the energy, health and civil service sectors. Most trains and flights have been cancelled and those who can are being urged to work from home.  

Ministers have warned those involved not to turn the protest into an attempt to bring France to a standstill. But paralysis will be hard to avoid. The unions, supported by both the Far Left and Extreme Right in the National Assembly, are determined to show that their members reject any extension of their working lives regardless of what legislation may be passed or the impact on government and state indebtedness. 

Mass demonstrations are due to take place in Paris and other cities across the nation. The CRS, a specialist branch of the Police Nationale charged with riot control, will work closely with the paramilitary Gendarmerie Mobile to maintain order in anticipation of attempts by extremists and anarchists to give the protests the flavour of an insurrection. 

The President, for whom pension reform and retirement at 64 are central to his drive to rescue the public finances and bring France into line with other EU member states, will be mindful not only of previous mass protests, by the gilets-jaunes and the rail unions, that hobbled his first term in office, but of the evenements of 1968, when radical students, supported by the Communist Party and others, looked to threaten the survival of the Fifth Republic. 

It seems unlikely that today’s manifs will achieve the momentum of those of 53 years ago. But Macron, lacking a majority in parliament, is painfully aware that voters, even while acknowledging the need for change, are bloody-minded on the issue. They would rather hand the problem on to the next generation, or the one after that, than see any diminution of their existing retirement benefits, which by some distance are the most generous in Europe. 

The difference between France and the already strike-ridden UK is stark. In Britain, thus far, strikes mean just that. Workers stay away from their places of employment. Protests are confined to picket lines and the occasional flare-up. On the other side of the Channel, demonstrations – manifs – are a way of life in which the citizenry seek to underline that parliamentary democracy must always be tempered by the direct expression of grievances. 

The Élysée and the Assembly are obliged to recognise the two forms of governance. Failure to do so only increases popular resentment. Had Macron’s En Marche movement – now absurdly rebranded as Renaissance – won another 25 or so seats in last summer’s parliamentary elections, pension reform might just have been possible in a manner consistent with usual democratic practise. 

As it is, the President is struggling. The reform Bill, backed by most centre-right Republicans, will be presented in the Assembly next Monday, but is likely to be shredded by the Left-Right Opposition to the extent that it may well be transferred to the right-leaning Senate, or even passed by decree under an emergency provision of the Constitution. At that point, with more strikes scheduled to take place every few days, the gloves will be off and the real fight will begin.   

This week, much of the country has been blanketed by snow and frost. After a warm spell that helped the beleaguered national grid keep electricity flows steady, temperatures have dropped below freezing in several regions. 

Thursday has started off very cold in the Paris region, with the prospect of freezing rain later in the day. 

What impact this will have on turnout on the streets will become clear today. What we know is that tempers are strained on all sides and that both camps are determined to make a point. The battle-lines are drawn. 

It is noticeable that very few, whatever their view on the substance of the government’s Bill, make the claim that the unions are holding the country to ransom. The French are all too clear on what needs to be done – or in this case needs not to be done – about pensions. They must remain the same, regardless of the cost. If anything, the retirement age should come down to 60 and the final payout should be increased. And if this means that France remains out on a limb in the EU, so be it, for the thing about French exceptionalism is that it is the norm, not the exception.