France pension crisis: 'Breakdown of trust’ all Macron's fault warns senate leader

Mr Macron is currently grappling with a bitter crisis over his planned overhaul of the country’s complex and costly pension system.

Hardline unions are calling on the government to scrap its planned pension overhaul, in the biggest show of union force since the young reformist leader took power in 2017.

“There is a form of breakdown of trust between Emmanuel Macron and part of the country,” the right-wing heavyweight told Europe 1 radio.

The president of the Republic “has a duty to unite the French … yet I have never seen the country as divided and fractured as it is right now,” Mr Larcher continued.

The controversial reform has sparked nationwide strikes and protests, despite the government’s pledge to implement the changes in phases and “without brutality”.

Prime Minister Edouard Philippe insisted on Saturday the government would push ahead with the reform, but offered a major concession to unions opposed to the overhaul.

Mr Philippe said in a letter to unions and employers that he was prepared to drop plans to raise the retirement age for full pension benefits by two years to 64, in a move aimed at ending the strikes, which are now in their seventh week

“The compromise that I’m offering seems to me the best way to peacefully reform our retirement system,” Mr Philippe said.

He made the concession after talks between the government and unions to end the conflict failed on Friday.

Mr Macron’s proposed reform will merge France’s 42 separate pension schemes into a universal, points-based system under which for each euro contributed, every pensioner will have equal rights.

The government had hoped to create incentives to make people work longer, notably by raising the age at which a person can receive a full pension to 64 – the so-called “pivot age” – while keeping the legal retirement age at 62. But unions slammed the proposal as a “red line” and rejected it outright.

Mr Macron insists the pension reform will make the system fairer and help plug a stubborn deficit. Unions, for their part, say the changes will erode hard-earned benefits and leave scores of pensioners worse off.

While the moderate CFDT and UNSA unions welcomed the move to shelve the pivot age, the hardleft CGT and FO unions balked at the offer and called on workers to continue striking.

The government’s olive branch to unions came as tens of thousands of people marched through Paris against the reform on Saturday. But the protest slid into violence, with police firing tear gas and charging groups smashing storefronts and setting bins and billboards alight.

Mr Philippe said in the letter he expected unions and employers to agree on how to ensure the long-term financing of the pension system without the pivot age by April. If they fail to agree, the government will pass decrees guaranteeing the pension system is in the black by 2027, he said.

The pivot age would have saved five billion euros£4.3 billion (five billion euros) by 2023 and some 11 billion euros (£9.2 billion) by 2026, according to the government.

The government hopes to present the reform bill on January 24 so that it can be debated in parliament starting mid February with the aim of passing a law before the summer recess.

But hardline union leaders have vowed to resist the plan until it is withdrawn, in the biggest show of union force since Mr Macron won power in 2017 on a promise to slash public spending and reboot the economy.

Over the last three decades, governments have made changes to the pension system but each reform has been met with massive protests. None of the changes have managed to simplify the system.

source: express.co.uk