The Macron government’s wildly unpopular decision to raise the state pension age from 62 to 64 has been approved by France’s top constitutional council.
Political opponents’ proposals for a referendum were also rejected by the Constitutional Council, but some of the reforms were dropped due to legal issues.
Since January, there have been twelve days of rallies opposing the reforms.
Without a vote, the government pushed the measures through in March by using a special constitutional power.
Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne tweeted on Friday that “tonight there is no winner, no loser” in response to President Emmanuel Macron’s argument that the changes are necessary to keep the pension system from collapsing.
Although throngs of demonstrators had gathered nearby and the decision was welcomed with jeers, the authorities had until Saturday morning to issue a ban on rallies in front of the Constitutional Council building.
Some protesters chanted that they would keep up their protests until the measures were reversed.
The public’s “massive rejection of this reform” prompted trade unions to make a last-ditch request to the president not to sign the pension-age rise into law.
The unions argued that the reforms were already unjust and had become “even more unbalanced” as a result of the court rejecting six concessions that had been added to them.
A so-called “senior index” intended to encourage businesses with more than 1,000 employees to hire people over 55 was among the measures that the nine members of the Constitutional Council rejected.
