PARIS — Emmanuel Macron enacted his controversial pension reform on Saturday after clearing a constitutional hurdle, allowing the French president to try to move past the episode that’s sparked months of protests and dented his popularity.
The move was made possible after France’s Constitutional Council, made up chiefly of former politicians and senior civil servants, approved the core elements of the bill on Friday. The legislation, which will increase the minimum retirement age by two years to 64, will take effect in September.
While the green light from the court is a source of relief for Macron, he still faces deep opposition to the pension reform. Labor unions have remained unusually united through the protests, with opinion polls showing a majority of French people oppose raising the retirement age and support the strikes that started in January.
