Emmanuel Macron said he wants to work with unions to change French labor rules as the embattled president seeks to move past his controversial pension reform that has sparked widespread protests and dented his popularity.
(Bloomberg) — Emmanuel Macron said he wants to work with unions to change French labor rules as the embattled president seeks to move past his controversial pension reform that has sparked widespread protests and dented his popularity.
The government will make proposals on July 14, the Bastille Day national holiday, he said during a 14-minute televised speech in which he sought to convey a conciliatory tone, acknowledging that raising the minimum retirement age to 64 had not been accepted by the public.
“We have ahead of ourselves 100 days of cooling off, unity, ambition and action at the service of France,” Macron said, adding that he would reach out to all parties from mayors and elected officials to worker representatives, echoing past pledges to change his top-down governing style.
The president wasted no time in signing the unpopular pension reform into law late on Friday after France’s Constitutional Council approved the core elements of the bill. Unions accused the president of showing contempt for workers and pledged more protests to show their discontent.
The head of the moderate CFDT union, Laurent Berger, criticized the speech, saying it was empty, contained nothing concrete, and showed Macron hadn’t understood people’s anger, adding that it would do nothing to calm people’s discontent.
“Today, there is still a lot of anger among workers, a lot of anger among those who went out and protested,” he said on BFM TV. “This anger is notably due to this pension reform, which is unfair.”
French television showed images of impromptu demonstrations in central Paris and other cities, with a number of bins set on fire.
Unions have called for another major day of protests on the May 1 Labor Day holiday. The president said his door was open for talks, but Berger said unions would not respond before that date.
Macron said the opposition to his pension overhaul showed French people are deeply worried about labor conditions and pledged to consult unions on what he called a new working-life pact. He said he intends to discuss wage levels and how to boost employment among seniors.
He said other priorities include reforming emergency services in hospitals by 2024, as well as fighting illegal immigration, social benefit fraud and delinquency, proposals that typically appeal to right-wing parties.
It remains unclear how he’ll build coalitions to pass legislation in parliament, however, after he lost his absolute majority last year.
Marine Le Pen, whose far-right National Rally is the biggest opposition party in the lower house, accused Macron of turning his back again on the French people and ignoring their suffering.
“This disconnected, solitary and obtuse way of governing signals the continuation of five years of contempt, indifference and brutality,” she said on Twitter.
Macron’s use of a constitutional provision to bypass parliament and push through the pension reform after he failed to win enough support from conservatives in the National Assembly especially angered opponents, who say he hasn’t kept a promise to bring more democracy. He is unable to stand for a third term when his current mandate ends in 2027.
–With assistance from Angelina Rascouet.
(Updates with comments from opposition leader starting in 12th paragraph.)
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