Calay News
This Monday, May 1, new mass protests against pension reform took place in France, in the context of inflation concerns that have sparked strikes and demonstrations around the world in recent months. Since March 16, marches have seen clashes between police and radical protesters in Paris and other cities. Union representatives from Korea, Turkey, Colombia, and Spain, among others, were present in Paris.
The pension reform in France, which the government wants to implement as of September, has called into question the importance given to work in the lives of citizens, in the wake of the COVID pandemic and its confinements, and in the midst of concerns about the climate crisis. Environmental activists sprayed paint on the facade of the Louis Vuitton Foundation and the headquarters of the French Ministry of Justice to denounce, in the latter case, a “climatized [pension] law.”
The unions are waiting for the Constitutional Council to validate a request from the left-wing opposition to organize a referendum to limit the retirement age to 62. Macron, who defends the reform as a way to avoid a future deficit in the pension fund, seeks to relaunch his second term in office until 2027. But on his visits around France, he keeps getting pots, pans, and boos. “Macron resign,” read a huge handmade yellow vest that protesters placed on the statue that presides over the Place de la Republique in Paris.
