Thousands of people in the square, hundreds arrested for violence and vandalism, the city blocked by strikes in all sectors, the streets submerged in waste. This is the current image of the French capital, the scene of the tug of war between the Macron government and the millions of citizens who oppose his pension reform, now law without the consent of Parliament (in full compliance with the Constitution).
Piazza della Concordia, in front of the French Parliament, is packed. “Macron take your pension, not ours,” reads the placard waved by a protester. A few meters away, a depiction of Macron is thrown into the flames that rage in the middle of the square. For the past few days, scenes like this have been the norm in Paris. The streets and squares of the French capital are in fact ablaze with numerous spontaneous demonstrations, the culmination of weeks of protests against raising the retirement age.
Skyrocketing tension
In particular, tension has been at an all-time high since the French government exercised a special constitutional power on Thursday 16 March to pass the bill without Parliament’s vote, using the so-called article 49.3. This move has actually paved the way for the final approval of the reform, which should take place in these days. However, the use of the controversial article 49.3 was perceived by the French as a about-face to citizens and democratic institutions – polls show that the vast majority of French people are against the reform – and has exacerbated the protesters’ anger. Fires and vandalism in the streets, violent clashes between protesters and the police and arrests are now the order of the day.
Even in Parliament, tension is skyrocketing. For weeks, the government of Élisabeth Borne appointed by President Macron – which has lost its absolute majority in the National Assembly since June – has been trying to gain the support of the opposition both on the right and on the left. However, the heated debates did not lead to a consensus: after the appeal to 49.3, the opposition deputies brandished signs with the words “64 years old, that’s a no”, whistling and intoning the Marseillaise. Among the most controversial measures of the reform, which has become law, are the raising of the retirement age from 62 to 64, and the increase from 41 to 43 years of contributions necessary to obtain a full pension.
The spontaneous demonstrations of the last few days add to the eight days of general mobilization which, since last January 19, have seen thousands of French take to the streets against the reform. The days of protest saw record participation across the country, with the total number of demonstrators estimated at between 440,000 and 1.28 million per day, according to the French Interior Ministry, and between 1.3 million and 3.5 million according to the CGT union.
The street protests have been accompanied for weeks by strikes in almost all working sectors, especially in public transport, in the energy sector, in schools and in health care. In particular, since March 7 the country has been paralyzed by strong unrest in transport and other sectors, following the appeal of the 8 main trade union organizations to “block France”. Among the sectors on strike, that of garbage collectors, particularly affected by the reform. In fact, this would imply the loss of their special status, and would oblige them to work two more years for a full pension despite, according to the CGT union, “a life expectancy of 12 to 17 years lower than in other professions”. Since the start of the strike, more than 10,000 tons of rubbish have already accumulated on the streets of Paris.
At the roots of the protest
However, the dissatisfaction of French citizens goes far beyond the reform alone. «It’s not just a question of pensions», François tells TPI, «but a basic problem of the economic and social model towards which our society is moving; for this reason, for weeks, we have been so many on the street ». The student, who has participated in all the protests, criticizes the government’s neo-liberal policies and the crumbling of the French welfare system.
Valérie, 53, also took to the streets to express her disapproval not only of the reform, but also of a political orientation – that of Macron – which benefits big companies and managers rather than workers. “Instead of forcing people to work two more years, public spending should be financed by raising taxes on the richest and large companies: Macron instead prefers to de-tax large estates and super-profits”, says Valérie, referring to the abolition of the tax on large estates by the French president in 2018, and to the various tax breaks granted to companies in the name of competitiveness.
“The government does not act in the interest of the general population, but in the interest of the richest”, echoed another protester, declaring himself tired of being told by the government that there is no money for public services, and of seeing it slowly destroyed the welfare system, while corporate profits continue to grow. “The money is there, but the government doesn’t want to go looking for it,” he concludes, “because it gives priority to maximizing corporate profits.”
According to the analysis of the French union Solidaires-Finances publiques, the tax reforms implemented during the first 5 years of Macron’s government have effectively favored the richest, subtracting over 60 billion euros a year from the state coffers to the detriment of public services , of welfare, and in general of services in favor of the less well-off. The result is that inequalities in France are increasing, as demonstrated by the latest biennial report of the Observatory on Inequalities.
This is confirmed by the fact that in 2022 – while poverty rates and economic precariousness have increased due to inflation – the 40 largest French companies received a record 80 billion euros in dividends. Among them, the oil giant Total made a record surplus of 20.5 billion euros: the highest profit ever achieved by a French company.
«Who has to pay for the crisis? Those who have suffered, the middle-lower classes who are now at risk of poverty due to inflation, or those who have gotten rich thanks to the crisis, speculating on energy prices?” asks François. It is a question of class struggle, explains the boy, it is a question of deciding from which pockets we want to take the money that would allow the French welfare state to sustain itself. “This is why the middle-lower classes are angry and are taking to the streets”, concludes François “and they will not stop, regardless of the approval of the pension reform”.
But the government is deaf
But it is the feeling that the government is not listening to their concerns, and that it remains unmoved by the country’s discontent, that makes the protesters increasingly furious. Nel is a nineteen-year-old student and he took to the streets for this very reason. The boy explains that he did not participate in the first days of mobilization, but that he decided to take to the streets in recent weeks out of frustration at seeing the government deaf to the demands of its citizens.
“What infuriates me is the fact that Macron does not back down despite the historic mobilization and despite the fact that the polls clearly say that the majority of French people do not want the reform”, explains the young man to TPI, “this is not the way it should operate a democratic government. Just like Nel, many other French people are now protesting for this reason, and more and more placards appearing on the streets depicting Macron as an absolute monarch – placards that had not been seen in the first days of the mobilization.
With Paris still on fire, and other days of mobilization already announced by the unions, the discontent of the French shows no sign of abating. By now it seems clear that the growing dissatisfaction with the government is bound to outlast the pension issue. For his part, if he too manages to pass the reform, Macron will still not be able to ignore such a large-scale mobilization or remain deaf to the concerns of an increasingly precarious and dissatisfied citizenry.
