PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron stood by his deeply unpopular pensions reform in his first TV appearance since a controversial decision last week to force through the legislation.
“Some don’t want to face reality, it’s not a luxury, it’s not a pleasure, [the reform] is a necessity for our country. Some gloss over it and don’t want to face the constraints of reality,” he told France 2 and TF1 TV channels Wednesday.
The French president also lashed out at opposition parties who he said would rather create more deficits as a “magic formula” to avoid taking tough decisions. Macron wants to raise the retirement age to 64 from 62, and extend contributions to get a full pension, in a bid to balance the books. According to projections from France’s Council of Pensions Planning, the finances of the pensions system are balanced in the short term but will go into deficit in the long term.
The French government is under fire from opposition parties, trade unionists and protesters after it invoked a controversial constitutional maneuver to bypass a parliamentary vote. In the run-up to the decisive day last Thursday for the pensions bill, the government appeared to not have enough votes for the bill in parliament. Macron’s trusted lieutenant Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne and her government narrowly survived a subsequent vote of no-confidence on Monday.
On Wednesday, Macron put paid to rumors that he was going to replace Borne in a government reshuffle, at least in the short term. He said he expected Borne to find new allies on the center right and center left to strengthen her minority government. Macron would also task her with working on a new package of measures to improve education, health services and working conditions.
The French president also said he would try and obtain “exceptional contributions” for employees working for companies that have “exceptional profits.”
Macron’s interview on French television drew immediate criticism from trade unions when he said they had not presented “any proposals to reach a compromise” during consultations. Laurent Berger, leader of the CFDT trade union, accused the president of lying to “mask his inability to get a majority to back his unfair reform.”
Street pressure
Despite strikes and scenes of anger on the streets in recent days, the French president showed no sign he would cave to political pressure, telling interviewers the pensions reform bill would “follow the parliamentary process” after the failed motion of no confidence.
Macron lashed out at “factions” and “groups that use extreme violence” to challenge the reform.
“We have groups that use extreme violence to attack MPs, mayors and when they use violence it’s not democracy,” he said. “When you see what happened in the U.S. during the events on Capitol Hill, or in Brazil. You have to say we’ll respect, we’ll listen, but we won’t accept factions or sectarians,” he said.
There have been reports of threats and intimidations against MPs belonging to Macron’s Renaissance party as well as acts of vandalism against the offices of lawmakers who have come out in support of the reform.
While Macron and his prime minister have suffered a hit in their popularity ratings, the far right and its leader Marine Le Pen have emerged strengthened from the current political turmoil.
“What I heard is that he compared the masses to what happened in Capitol Hill, in Brazil… he says he respects, but actually he offends, he offends all the French who are demonstrating,” she said after the president’s remarks.
Macron’s comments came ahead of a major day of protests and strikes planned for Thursday.
