French President Emmanuel Macron told the country’s protesting labor unions in a letter that it’s necessary to work longer to preserve the pension system, sticking to his plan to raise the retirement age to 64 from 62.
The letter responds to demands from unions for an in-person meeting with the French leader after at least 1.28 million people joined marches on Tuesday, the largest turnout yet in a succession of protests since mid-January. With surveys showing a majority of French oppose the pension overhaul and support strike action, unions say Macron has remained deaf to the backlash.
“The government hasn’t remained silent, and I’ve answered questions from the French people on the topic,” Macron said in the letter obtained by Bloomberg. “I don’t underestimate the discontent on behalf of which you’ve made yourselves the spokespeople or the anxiety expressed by many French people who worry they’ll never get a pension.”
Still, he wrote, the choice he presented to the French was between working longer, raising taxes or pushing the financial burden of retirement onto future generations.
“The need to adapt our system in order to preserve it was at the heart of the presidential election,” he wrote. Macron has previously said that the reform was also needed to invest more in green transition and education.
Following the surge in turnout this week, labor organizations have planned more protests on Saturday and Wednesday. Opposition to the retirement-age change is especially high among women whose pensions are lower than men’s, according to a poll published Thursday.
French Opposition to Pension Reform Is Strongest Yet, Poll Shows
In the letter, Macron said the government had already made changes to the overhaul after consultation with unions and business groups. Those include provisions to allow people who started careers early in life to retire earlier than others, and setting the minimum age at 64, instead of 65 as he had initially indicated during the election campaign.
©2023 Bloomberg L.P.
