⚖️The Constitutional Council validates the Pension Reform

With “the institutional and democratic progress of the reform” completed, the process has effectively ended, but that doesn't mean that the politics has!

The entrance to the Constitutional Council (By Wikimedia Commons)

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And so the Pension Reform saga moves on to the next stage in the story.

At 18h00 on Friday 14 April 2023, the Constitutional Council voted to validate the majority of the contentious pension reform. Most notably, the emblematic measure of gradually postponing the legal retirement age to 64 years old has been validated.

However, several “social riders” with “no place in the referred law” have been censored. These include the indexing on the employment of seniors and the seniors with a CDI (a permanent contract), which was to facilitate the hiring of long-term job seekers over 60.

In this story, the disappointments don’t stop coming for the left, as the Council also rejected the draft referendum of shared initiative (RIP), a major effort by the far-left-led NUPES coalition.

This would be their main tool to hyper-politicise the process by launching a national referendum to force the government to call on the people and allowing political forces to launch themselves into a messy political campaign.

So naturally, the La France Insoumise-led coalition has tabled a second attempt which will be heard on Wednesday 3 May 2023.

“#Pensions | The Constitutional Council judged, both on the merits and on the procedure, the reform in accordance with our Constitution. The text is coming to the end of its democratic process. Tonight there is no winner or loser.”

The government attempted to strike a conciliatory tone, with Elisabeth Borne coming out with a statement attempting to de-fang the issue slightly and avoid a more combative reaction, declaring that she wanted to “continue the consultation” with social partners.

She was joined by Eric Ciotti, President of Les Républicains, who called on all political actors to accept the decision of the Council.

“The Constitutional Council has validated the postponement of the retirement age to 64 years. I respect this decision. This law must now be applied. My press release”

Meanwhile, the usual actors decided to ramp up the rhetoric aggressively.

Marine Le Pen, President of the Rassemblement National group in the Assemblée National, very quickly came out with a statement calling on people to “prepare the alternation which will come back to this useless and unjust reform”

Translation: “Please vote for me in 2027, I’ll pretend that I’ll revoke the law”

“If the decision of the Constitutional Council closes the institutional sequence, the political fate of the pension reform is not sealed. The people always having the last word, it will be up to them to prepare the alternation which will come back to this useless and unjust reform.”

She was joined by Far-Left firebrand Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who came out with his usual violent, anti-institutional rhetoric, which needs no explanation:

“The decision of the Constitutional Council shows that it is more attentive to the needs of the presidential monarchy than to those of the sovereign people. The fight continues and must gather its forces.”

“The exceptional violence of the decisions of the Constitutional Council requires close coordination between the NUPES and the unions to continue the fight and control the response. Alert to the anger of despair..”

“#Macron wanted to intimidate all of France overnight. Thief of life! Absurd display of arrogance. The fight for the withdrawal of the law now involves a certain idea of dignity.”

So, par for the course, then

But what’s next?

Immediately after the Constitutional Council decision, the process continued, with French President Emmanuel Macron promulgating the pension reform law within hours despite the Union’s asking him very nicely not to do it.

In many ways, this would be an insult to said Council, having worked without a break from 09h00 to 04h00 to examine the constitutionality of the text and the “sincerity and clarity” of the parliamentary debate.

With “the institutional and democratic progress of the reform” completed (according to Matignon), the process has effectively ended, and this law will come into effect with the timeline outlined previously.

However, this does not mean the politics have ended (lucky us!)

At the start of the coming week, a process will start where the leading ministers of the Presidential majority will present their ideas for the rest of the quinquennat to President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Elizabeth Borne.

Covering everything from the economy, labour, budget, and security, some interesting topics will undoubtedly be raised.

There will even supposedly be a speech by Emmanuel Macron at the start of the week, with political outings planned to rub shoulders and speak with the wider public about what is happening.

These will be done simultaneously, with the protests against the pension reform likely continuing, with an ebb and flow of the numbers and the constant game for political relevance played by actors like Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the NUPES coalition, and Marine Le Pen.

But hey, that’s just politics.

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