PARIS, 10 Mar: French President Emmanuel Macron insisted on the need for raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 in order to make the French pension system financially sustainable in the coming years, in a letter to workers\u2019 unions released Friday.
\nThe move comes after more than a million demonstrators marched in cities and towns across France this week as train and metro drivers, refinery workers and others started open-ended strikes against the centrist government\u2019s plan.
\nUnions called for more protests on Saturday. They demand the withdrawal of the bill, which is being debated at the Senate this week.
\nAccording to the letter provided by the president\u2019s office, Macron said he made the choice to \u201cmake the French work a little longer\u201d because other options, which he rejected, would have involved \u201cdecreasing pensions, raising taxes or letting our children and grandchildren carry the financial burden.\u201d
\nOpinion polls consistently show a majority of the French oppose the change. Left-wing lawmakers argue companies and the wealthy should pitch in more to finance the pension system.
\nMacron also recalled the measure was a key promise from his presidential campaign last year, adding that he made a concession by agreeing to put the age limit at 64, down from 65 as initially planned.
\n\u201cYou strongly express your disagreement,\u201d Macron wrote to the unions. \u201cI don\u2019t underestimate the discontent \u2026 as well as the anxiety expressed by many French people who have concerns about never getting any pension.\u201d AP<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the government asked Friday for a special procedure to be implemented at the Senate to accelerate the debate by organizing one single vote on the whole bill, rather than voting on each amendment and article.
\nThe Senate, which is dominated by members of The Republicans party, is expected to approve the bill. Conservative senators have pushed for years to raise the minimum retirement age.
\nIf the bill is approved by the Senate, it will continue making its way next week through France\u2019s complex legislative process. AP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PARIS, 10 Mar: French President Emmanuel Macron insisted on the need for raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 in order to make the French pension system financially sustainable in the coming years, in a letter to workers\u2019 unions released Friday. The move comes after more than a million demonstrators marched in cities and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-212514","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212514\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}