Forty-seven percent of those polled said the crippling strike action against the pension overhaul “should continue,” compared with 51 percent who said it should stop, the Elabe poll for the news channel BFMTV showed. Fifty-four percent of respondents expressed sympathy with the social movement against the controversial reform, as unions warned there would be no break in transport strikes over the Christmas period unless the government backed down on its plans.
While 41 percent of those polled blamed the current unrest on the Macron government, 28 percent blamed the unions behind the week-long strikes. Thirty-one percent blamed both sides for the chaos.
Fifty percent of those interviewed said they were in favour of the government’s plan to overhaul the complex retirement system, compared with 49 percent who said they were against.
French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said on Wednesday people would have to work two years longer to get a full pension, drawing a bitter response from unions who said they would ramp up their strike action.
In a speech that followed days of mass protests and strikes, M Philippe outlined an overhaul of the pension system that he said would be fairer and close a chronic deficit in the pension budget.
He said the legal retirement age would remain at 62, but that workers would be encouraged to work until 64 – the so-called “pivot age” – through a system of bonuses and discounts.
M Philippe said France would replace a complex system comprised of 42 separate state-funded plans with a universal, points-based system that will apply to those entering the labour market for the first time in 2022.
The government argues the new system will be fairer, giving every pensioner the same rights for each euro contributed.
“I am determined to see this reform through because I believe it to be fair,” he said.
He also said there would be a minimum pension of £845 (€1,000) per month for those who worked a full career.
In an interview with TF1 television later on Wednesday, M Philippe insisted the reform was “not a battle,” as unions pledged to fight against the proposed changes.
The reform-minded CFDT union, which had hitherto refused to join the strikes, called for a mass protest to be held on Tuesday and said in a statement the proposals were “unjust” and that a “red line had been crossed”.
CFDT leader Laurent Berger said M Macron had broken a promise by making 64 the de facto new retirement age.
Philippe Martinez, the leader of the hard-left CGT union, for his part said the government had made a “mockery” of workers, adding: “Everyone will work longer, this is unacceptable.”
“There will be no Christmas break in the strike action unless the government comes to its senses,” Laurent Brun, leader of the CGT’s railway branch, told France Info radio.
Public transport networks in Paris and other big cities have been paralysed by the walkout, which kicked off last Thursday and left shops, hotels and restaurants fearing for the impact on their bottom line.
Reform of France’s debt-ridden pension system, which offers some of the most generous benefits in the industrialised world, has proven a tricky task for past and present governments.
Pension reforms by former conservative presidents Nicolas Sarkozy in 2010 and Jacques Chirac in 1995 ignited street protests and failed to plug a chronic deficit.
• The Elabe poll of 1,003 people aged 18 and over was conducted online on December 11.