Three possible scenarios as French court prepares to rule on constitutionality of pension reform

File photo: French Constitutional Council President Laurent Fabius awaits the arrival of the French Prime Minister for a meeting at the Conseil Constitutionnel in Paris on July 21, 2020. © Ludovic Marin, AFP

France’s highest constitutional authority, the Constitutional Council, will rule Friday on whether President Emmanuel Macron’s contentious pension reform proposal should be accepted, modified or rejected based on the guidelines of the French constitution. FRANCE 24 explains the three possible outcomes. 

Not once in living memory has a ruling by France’s Constitutional Council aroused so much excitement. One of France’s three highest legal authorities, the Council is tasked with ensuring that legislation does not contravene the Fifth Republic’s constitution presented by Charles de Gaulle in 1958. The Council is not a politicised body like the US Supreme Court, and has tended to focus on the more technical questions of constitutional interpretation.