After President Emmanuel Macron pledged to push through France's unpoular pensions reform bill in 2023, Greens party head Marine Tondelier told RFI street protests were the only way to scupper the policy, which would raise the legal age of retirement from 62 to 65 years.
Calling on French citizens to show "unity and solidarity" during his televised New Year speech on Saturday, Macron told the country: "This year will indeed be that of a pension reform that aims to guarantee the equilibrium of our system in the years and decades to come. We have to work more.”
For 35-year-old Tondelier – who in early December took the reins of the Greens after former leader Julien Bayou resigned over accusations of domestic abuse – those words do not characterise the President's pension reform.
"We will of course be in the streets – I’ve got my trainers ready, as have green activists – to get this reform reversed,” she told RFI on Monday.
Tondelier admitted the government's use of article 49.3 – a constitutional mechanism allowing it to side-step a parliamentary vote – meant it was unlikely the pension reform would fail.
"But if it does fail, it will be thanks to what happens on the street; that’s why it’s important to turn out for the first protests,” she said.
Trade union talks
Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne is to hold talks with unions on Tuesday and Wednesday this week before the pension reform bill is presented in the National Assembly on 10 January.
The bulk of the reform has not changed since Macron was re-elected for a second term in April last year.
He remains determined to increase the minimum legal age to be able to retire on a full state pension from the 62 years to either 64 or 65.
The reform should take effect “from the end of the summer” and would bring France into line with its EU neighbours such as Belgium and Germany.
Raising the retirement age remains unpopular in France, with polls showing up to 70 percent of people are opposed.
Things will 'hot up'
All the trade unions are against the move, including the reformist CFDT.
“In terms of injustice, you can’t do worse,” said Yvan Ricordeau, national secretary of the CFDT.
“For the CFDT, the existing state of the pension system in no way justifies raising the legal age of retirement to 64 or 65 years of age,” he told FranceInfo.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, founder of the hard-left France Unbowed party, tweeted that things would “hot up in January”.
Tondelier agreed things were hotting up – not just for social reasons, but ecological ones in particular.
She cited the record high temperatures on 31 December across France, ice sheets melting 100 times quicker than predicted, the massive extinction of biodiversity and a living world under threat.
“If we want to preserve our social rights, we have to protest for our pensions," Tondelier said, adding that protesting for climate action was part of the package.
"In 30 years’ time, with a world that’s 4°C warmer, we will no longer be asking about capitalisation or redistribution at 60/62/65 years old, all of that will be far away.
"So we must also mobilise for the climate if we want social rights in 30 years' time."
Rethinking solidarity
During the June 2022 legislative elections, French Greens campaigned for bringing down the legal age of retirement to 60.
Tondelier recognises the battle is "unfortunately" no longer to reduce it, but to stop it being pushed back.
“We have to rethink solidarity overall, solidarity with our elders and with the younger generation who will have to confront a world that’s 4°C warmer.
"I’m 35 and don’t know if the 'in 30 years' time' will exist. We don't know if the planet will still be habitable."
