Two days after the sixth general strike in France to protest Emmanuel Macron's contested pension reform, the country's Labor Minister, Olivier Dussopt, has given Spain as an example, in an interview with Le Parisien, to justify this law, which seeks to delay the retirement age from the current 62 years to 64 and is currently being debated in the Senate.
In the aforementioned interview, Dussopt defends himself against those who criticize that it is a right-wing reform. "It is a left-wing reform, which could have been approved by a socialist government," says the minister, who was from the Socialist Party and went over to Macron's party.
He assures that the preceding reform was made by a socialist government, that of François Hollande, when he increased the contribution period to reach the pension from 41 years to 43.
Remember that in most of France's neighboring countries, everyone has the retirement age of 66 or 67 years." Like Spain, "which has a social democratic government and a communist labor minister," he says, alluding to Yolanda Díaz. "The retirement age has been set at 67 years for pensions well below ours," he stresses, referring to Spain.
After going through the Assembly, the pension reform is now in the Senate. Afterwards, it will have to be examined by a mixed commission to finally be approved on March 26 at the latest.
The country is overwhelmingly opposed to the reform (68%, according to a latest poll by Le Journal du Dimanche). All the parties are against it and the government only has the support of the Republicans. These, however, have imposed their conditions and the Macron Executive has had to make some concessions.
Unions have also united for the first time in decades against the project. A new strike day has been called for this Tuesday and the intention of the unions is to "paralyze the country." From there, it will be decided whether to go on an indefinite strike. The government spokesman, Olivier Véran, warned this week that a paralysis of the country "will be the apocalypse."
The Minister of Transport, Clement Beaune, has asked "the French who can do it, to telework", in view of the blockade of transport. In France there are no minimum services, so strikes usually have a significant impact on mobility.
The strike could affect between 20 and 30% of flights from French airports on Tuesday and Wednesday. The Government insists that the reform is necessary and urgent to balance the system in 2030", since there are more people receiving benefits than working to pay them.
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