French government refuses to budge on proposal to increase age limit for full pension
At Monday's meeting of the French cabinet, the government vowed to push ahead with the contested reform of the pension system, saying there would be no stepping back on the proposed retirement age of 64 years.
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"If we go back on the age question," the Labour Minister Olivier Dussopt told a press conference after Monday's cabinet meeting, "then we go back on the promise to balance the finances of the pension system by 2030.
"And that would be to fail in our duty to future generations.
"Yes," the minister agreed, "we are aware of the complaints of the trade union organisations.
"But the president has called for a resolute attitude in the face of opposition and the government shares that determination."
Apart from increasing the retirement age gradually from 62 now to 64 by 2030, the bill would increase the minimum number of years people must pay into the system in order to get a full pension.
Dussopt said the government "disagrees with trade unions", who were at the forefront of a day of strikes and protests last Thursday in which over 1.1 million people took to the streets against pension reform.
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Union resistance to continue
Unions are now gearing up for another strike day on 31 January, warning they are prepared to step up their actions if the government does not relent.
Ministers argue that the pension system will slip billions into deficit in the coming years and that savings must be found to avoid costly top-ups from general taxation.
They had hoped to mollify opponents by using some of the savings from the reform to pay for measures like a minimum pension of 1,200 euros per month, as well as by offering exemptions to the minimum age for those who started work in their teens.
Ministers must now shepherd the reform through parliament, where they will face determined opposition especially from the left.
Dussopt said the government would accept amendments that "improve the text without giving up on getting back to balancing the books by 2030, nor the fundamentals of the reform".
Political opposition to expose 'lies'
François Ruffin, an MP in the hard-left France Unbowed party, said that his colleagues would not try to bury the debate under the 75,000 amendments already proposed.
Instead, the group would offer "firm opposition that will allow us to take the text and the government's lies apart piece by piece," Ruffin told broadcaster France 3.
He insisted that President Emmanuel Macron "isn't doing this reform for economic reasons, for him it's about stamping his authority" on the country.
Macron himself again insisted on Sunday that pensions reform had been part of his programme at last year's elections, where he won a second presidential term only to see his government lose its absolute parliamentary majority in the legislative vote weeks later.
Several lawmakers in the government ranks are weighing amendments of their own.
Battlelines drawn as fight over French pension reform gathers pace
Government open to improvements
"Our MPs will have the right to improve this reform," the leader of the president's Renaissance party Stephane Sejourne told Franceinfo radio Monday.
Support for the pension changes appears fragile on the left wing of Macron's parliamentary group and in smaller allied parties, with former minister Barbara Pompili saying last week she "couldn't vote for the reform at this stage".
The trade unions, most opposition groups and the majority of French workers questioned in opinion polls are opposed to the changes.
The government says reform is essential to prevent the bankruptcy of the pension system.
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