France news and discussions

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weatheriscool
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France engulfed by protests against raising retirement age from 62 to 64
Source: politiko.al

In a sign of revolt, workers in France are stopping trains, cutting off electricity supplies and taking to the streets, challenging Emmanuel Macron's policies.

Read more: https://politiko.al/english/bota/franca ... ac-i474387
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New Record Protests in France: Anger Over Macron Pension Plan (raises retirement age from 62 to 64)
Travel, schools and services were disrupted by nationwide strikes and protests for a sixth time as the battle over the retirement age intensified.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/07/worl ... tests.html

https://archive.is/qnHHl
Protesters faced off with the police during a demonstration in the northern French city of Rennes.

PARIS — Idle trains, closed ports, empty schools, canceled flights, uncollected trash, shuttered refineries. That was life in France on Tuesday as labor unions attempted to bring the country “to a standstill” and flooded streets in towns and cities around the country with more than a million marchers, protesting President Emmanuel Macron’s plans to raise the legal age of retirement to 64 from 62.

After two months of an uneasy confrontation and five previous demonstrations that have unfurled across the country, neither side has shown any sign of backing down. Many wonder if Tuesday will be the beginning of a reinvigorated movement that could force the government’s hand, or instead become a final yell of frustration — lingering in the air before fading, as Mr. Macron pushes through his change.

“Will either group manage to convince public opinion or not?” asked Chloé Morin, a political scientist and former adviser to two prime ministers. Between the government, the unions and protesters, she added, “you have 67 million French people who are watching this match.”

Unions and authorities provided wildly different estimates of the number of marchers on Tuesday — a record 1.28 million, according to the Interior Ministry, versus a record 3.5 million for the unions, a gap large even for France, where discrepancies between their estimates are common.

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Macron Will Push Pension Reform Bill Through Without Vote, Reports Say
Source: New York Times
PARIS — President Emmanuel Macron, apparently short of parliamentary support for his contentious proposal to increase the retirement age by two years, has decided to push the legislation through without a vote, French news media reported on Thursday.

The move was likely to inflame further opposition to the government’s plan, after weeks of protests and strikes that have disrupted public transportation, left garbage piling up and sparked impassioned debate over the future of the country’s cherished social protection system.

On Thursday — a day after hundreds of thousands marched in cities around France to oppose the plan — the upper house of Parliament, the Senate, approved the bill, which increases the age when most workers are able to retire with a government pension to 64, from 62. But in the National Assembly, the lower and more powerful house, Mr. Macron’s party and its allies have only a slim majority, and it was not clear that they have enough votes.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/03/16 ... =url-share
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caltrek
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Macron Government on Track to Survive No-confidence Votes
by Cain Burdeau
March 20, 2023

Introduction:
(Courthouse News) — French President Emmanuel Macron's government was on the verge of surviving a parliamentary rebellion on Monday against a controversial move to ram through pension reforms that raise France's retirement age by two years to 64.

French media reported that Macron's opponents were unlikely to rally enough votes to win two no-confidence votes scheduled to take place in the National Assembly late Monday.

Last Thursday, Macron set off a political firestorm when he sidestepped parliament and increased the retirement age by using a constitutional device that allows presidents to enact legislation without the approval of the National Assembly.

He invoked his right to bypass parliament at the last moment because he feared the pension law would be struck down in a parliamentary vote. In response, opposition parties filed no-confidence motions.

Macron's move inflamed street protests, which turned violent at points over the weekend as police clashed with demonstrators in Paris and elsewhere. Dozens of people were arrested in Paris.
Read more here: https://www.courthousenews.com/macron- ... ce-votes/
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firestar464
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The sad thing is that Macron is being forced to sacrifice democracy to save the pension system. The other options, namely reducing pensions or increasing the amount of contributions workers have to make, are even worse
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caltrek
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firestar464 wrote: Mon Mar 20, 2023 8:58 pm The sad thing is that Macron is being forced to sacrifice democracy to save the pension system. The other options, namely reducing pensions or increasing the amount of contributions workers have to make, are even worse
There is another option, which in France may not be as applicable as in the United States. That is to raise corporate taxes and/or taxes on the rich to shore up the pension system. Exercising such an option means recognizing a certain reality, that the workers have created a wealth which has been redistributed to the wealthy and to upper management. Recognition of that reality is an important part of understanding why the solution I (and others, at least in the U.S.) propose makes sense.
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Taxing corp profits would be an option, yes. Not the rich people, though, as they actually make most of their money through investments IIRC
weatheriscool
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Top French court backs unpopular plans to raise retirement age to 64

Source: CNN

France’s top court on Friday approved the government’s unpopular plans to raise the age of retirement by two years to 64, a huge win for President Emmanuel Macron in the face of mass protests across the country.

Pension reform in France, where the right to retire on a full pension at 62 is deeply cherished, is always a highly sensitive issue and even more so in recent months with social discontent mounting over the surging cost of living.

Sweeping protests have paralyzed major services across France year this year over Macron’s proposed changes to the pension system. There have been violent clashes between police and demonstrators.

As part of the ruling, the Constitutional Council – similar to the US Supreme Court – also refused a first request by opposition lawmakers to hold a referendum on the reform. A last-minute second request put forward Thursday to hold a referendum on the reform remains under consideration.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/14/europe/f ... index.html
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