Retirement with generous government benefits at the age of 64 would not be controversial in many other parts of the world but a planned policy in France to raise the retirement age to 64 (from 62) is causing widespread social unrest.
Hundreds of thousands of trade union workers and ordinary French citizens went on strike and demonstrated across the country on Tuesday, in perhaps the most powerful expression of outrage at the proposed changes.
They were able to halt most railway traffic, close schools, delay air travel, and disrupt fuel deliveries from oil refineries, among other things.
The government of French President Emmanuel Macron has said — with the support of many economists — that France cannot afford to continue providing retirement benefits at the earlier age.
Macron has been working for years to reform the country’s pension system, which faces a projected annual deficit of more than $10 billion. The government has argued the system needs reform to keep it solvent, and an ever-growing population of 60-and-over citizens has made the current benefits unsustainable.
Thus far, those arguments have done little to tame the opposition. “Let’s bring France to a halt!” a coalition of unions said in a statement Tuesday that called the reforms “unacceptable and useless.” A recent survey found that roughly two-thirds of the public support the protests.
