Macron implements retirement age change from 62 to 64

French President Emmanuel Macron this Saturday announced legislative changes that will increase the retirement age from 62 to 64, after the Constitutional Council approved most of the text.

The reform, which sparked strong protests in the streets, was published in the Official Journal on Saturday morning, the French agency AFP said.

After Friday’s decision by the Constitutional Council, the unions asked Macron “not to promulgate the law”, but the president did not respond to the request.

Macron had 15 days after the validation of most of the reform measures by the Constitutional Council to place his signature to make the law applicable.

In the first paragraph of the code, “sixty-two” has been replaced by “sixty-four”.

The Constitutional Council approved most of the pension reform, but overturned six articles, most notably two on promoting the hiring of workers over the age of 55 in large companies.

According to the Constitutional Council, these articles had no place in a law on the financing of social security.

The constitutionality watchdog also rejected a request to subject the pension reform to a citizen-initiated referendum.

To remove uncertainty in the parliamentary vote, Macron resorted to an article in the Constitution that allows a pension law to be passed without subjecting it to a vote in the National Assembly.

“There is no winner or loser,” said Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, referring to the “end of the institutional and democratic path” of the text adopted in the National Assembly after using the article in question.

Macron’s initiative was met with strong opposition from trade unions and protests continued in several French cities on Saturday night.

In Paris, street furniture, including about 30 rubbish bins, was burned and clashes between police and demonstrators led to 112 arrests, the Spanish agency EFE said.

Rennes, in northeastern France, was another city that recorded notable disturbances, with hundreds of young people setting fire to the door of a police station and the entrance to an old religious building.