Retirement age to rise from 62 to 64
1.1 million French take to the streets against pension reform
A pension reform has been heating up tempers in France – for years. Over a million people took to the streets on Thursday.
Published: 6 minutes ago
They fight against the pension reform.
More than 1.1 million people across France opposed the government’s pension plans in a major strike and mass protests on Thursday. This was announced by the Ministry of the Interior. 80,000 protested in Paris alone. The unions spoke of a participation of more than two million people in the more than 200 protests.
Because the current pension system will not be financed in the long term due to the aging population, the French government wants to gradually raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 years. In addition, the number of payment years required for a full pension should increase more quickly. A number of individual systems with privileges for certain professional groups are to be abolished. The monthly minimum pension is to rise to around 1200 euros.
There have been protests for years
Currently, the retirement age is 62 years. In fact, however, retirement begins later on average: those who have not paid in long enough to be entitled to a full pension also work longer.
Already on the first day of action, more people took to the streets against the planned pension reforms of the central government under President Emmanuel Macron than at the peak of the protests in his first term. At that time, after weeks of strikes against a pension reform at the end of 2019, a good 800,000 people took part in one day. The reform was ultimately postponed because of the corona pandemic. (SDA)