French people, On March 17, Emmanuel Macron’s government passed the pension reform scheme. There has been criticism surrounding the Pension reform scheme since its origin.
The Scheme amends the retirement age of the workers from 62 to 64. The amendment has been done without any vote of the lawmakers from the National Assembly. The People in France took out the demonstration on the street of France.
The opposition and French people started to protest against the bill.
Macron responds to the criticism
He said that France needs a new retirement system because of the precarious state of the pension system. The number of retirees is growing because of the increase in the Living life rate. These put a burden on the tax finance system.
Macron stated that the change in retirement age is the need of the hour to balance the changing demographics.
According to the polls, the 2/3rd of the French people have rejected the amendment. Macron’s party holds the majority in the upper house. Therefore, On Thursday, the bill got passed easily. The lower house where Macron’s party is in the minority. It would become a problem to get the bill passed.
He needed support from the Republican party to pass the pension reforms. Macron was well aware of the opposition and some of his MPs will abstain from voting in support of the bill. Therefore, The Provision of Article 43 was used.
This is not the first time that Article 43 has been used by the Ruling government. This has been used previously by other governments too.
Therefore, the Prime minister used the constitutional provision to avoid the vote in the assembly. Article 43 of the French constitution was invoked to pass the bill without the vote appeal in the national community.
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Protests throughout the country
The French people took to the roads and across the Seine River to protest peacefully. Initial The Protests are spread all across the country and are turning violent. The opposition parties also started protesting inside the National Assembly. The opposition members started singing the National anthem in the Assembly. Initially, the protest was peaceful but aggression started to grow.
The Union has also decided to do a strike on the 23rd of March. Till then, they will keep opposing the Retirement Amendment.
Protests are spread all across the country and are turning violent. The opposition parties also started protesting inside the National Assembly. The opposition members started singing the National anthem in the Assembly. People see retirement as an important decision in the country. They the retirement as leisure time for them. They see the Capitalist government as taking away their leisure from them. Therefore, French people and leaders from all left-wing, right-wing, and conservative are coming together to protest against the bill.
La France Insoumise (LFI), Mathilde Pinot, a leader from the left-wing party tweeted and criticized the Macron government. He tweeted that the president had brought the crisis to the country and passed the bill without “parliamentary or popular legitimacy”.
The French police started to clear out the people from the streets. The Protesters got into a fight with the French police. The French Police have detained around 120 protesters.
There has been no official response from the French government to the escalating violence and anger in the country.
