10 hours ago
French vow to fight ‘tooth and nail' over plot to increase retirement age to 66
French politicians have promised to fight 'tooth and nail' against leaked proposals to increase the country's retirement age to 66.
The Pensions Advisory Council (COR), which advises the French government, warned this week that the pension age must rise from 64 to 66 by 2045 to stop the country going bankrupt.
It comes just two years after protesters took to the streets over the plans to make residents work longer.
Laurent Berger, of the moderate CFDT union, told The Times: 'This is an outright provocation. French workers have already paid the price. Asking them to work even longer is unacceptable and will be fiercely resisted.'
Meanwhile, Olivier Faure, of the Socialist party, said: 'The government is using scare tactics and cooked-up figures to justify yet another attack on ordinary people. We will fight tooth and nail against this injustice.'
Emmanuel Macron, the French president, announced in 2023 that the the retirement age would increase from 62 to 64 by 2030. The rise was scheduled to happen gradually by three months per year.
The move sparked widespread public outrage, with more than one million protesters joining demonstrations across the country.
But the latest report from the COR suggests the pension system will sink further into the red despite the recent reforms.
Currently, a quarter of French public spending goes on pensions and this level is steadily rising, according to the report, which was leaked to the media ahead of its official release on June 12.
'A declaration of war on the French people'
Without change, the system will be in deficit by €15bn (£12.6bn) per year by 2035 due to the growing number of pensioners, the state auditor has previously warned.
