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🇺🇸 Pensions, Protests, and Paris
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FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Pensions, Protests, and Paris
Over the past week, demonstrations have unfolded across France, in opposition to French President Emmanuel Macron and his plan to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64. On Monday, Macron survived a no-confidence vote that would have ended his administration as well as the controversial legislation.
Reporting from The Left: French government narrowly survives no-confidence motions (CNN)
Reporting from The Right: Over 100 arrested in Paris during protests over Macron's pension reforms (Fox News)
From the Flag: Some in France refer to Macron as president for “the rich,” and this has only fueled those claims. But one of the country’s labor ministers says France’s pensions deficit will reach over $13 billion annually by 2027. Here’s more from both sides.
RIGHT-LEANING SENTIMENT
And Thus, Why Retirement Reform Is a Political Nightmare
France's retirement age is still on the younger side – even by European standards, and Western democracies must confront underfunded programs.
By taking on a politically sensitive issue, President Macron has opened the door for his rivals.
It's worth discussing how Americans would react if the age was raised for Social Security, but significant reform is halted by politicians' fear of voter backlash.
“Macron Muscles Through Pension Reform” Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal: “The political difficulty of reforming pensions in Western democracies has been on display in France… The French President escalated his efforts… by invoking the constitution to approve the reform without a vote in the National Assembly. Give Mr. Macron credit for persistence— and political brass. … Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne invoked Article 49 of the French constitution, which enabled the Macron government to strong-arm a bill through the National Assembly without a vote. … The invocation of Article 49 will incense opponents… They claim Mr. Macron has behaved undemocratically, though reform did pass the Senate and the use of Article 49 is legal. … The cold reality is that France needs reform because its pay-as-you-go pension system is unsustainable. The retirement age is 62, one of the youngest in Europe, and Mr. Macron would stretch it only to 64 with some exceptions.”
“Emmanuel Macron's 'strongman' move is a sign of weakness” James Crisp and Henry Samuel, The Telegraph: “Mr. Macron’s critics have always branded him an elitist ‘president of the rich’ and he has handed them yet more ammunition with his dodging of democracy. … It is a far cry from the presidential elections in April last year, when Mr. Macron handily defeated Marine Le Pen to win a rare second term as president. The reforms were the sole promise of a re-election campaign that was largely based on accusing Ms. Le Pen of pursuing an economically damaging Frexit by stealth. Mr. Macron vowed to unify the polarized country after the vote but those dreams were left in tatters after he lost his absolute majority in the National Assembly just two months later. Now his defeated presidential rivals on the hard-Right and hard-Left - Marine Le Pen and Jean-Luc Melanchon - are well-placed to extract their revenge.”
One more opinion piece from the Right: Emmanuel Macron's government may be teetering Jazz Shaw, Hot Air
LEFT-LEANING SENTIMENT
Macron May Be Making Some Unforced Errors, But Something’s Gotta Give
President Macron’s decision to force through his pension reforms without a vote damages French democracy.
Much like in the US, France’s retirement program desperately needs to be restructured, but it seems impossible politically.
Amid this turmoil, Macron’s political opponents are circling, but don’t count him out just yet.
“Ruling by decree in France: deepening the trust deficit” Editorial Staff, The Guardian: “Recent months have seen some of the largest protests in the history of the Fifth Republic… On Monday, his government survived a related parliamentary motion of no confidence by the skin of its teeth. … For a smart president, this seems like strangely dumb politics. … Mr. Macron’s reputation as an arrogant technocrat with little regard for social movements or civic sentiment is surely sealed. … An independent government body has judged that the pension system’s deficits are manageable for the foreseeable future, making it hard to understand why Mr Macron decided to take such a confrontational approach. Amid record levels of abstention at elections, the rise of online conspiracy theories and the all but accomplished normalization of the far right, Mr. Macron’s resort to government by decree has done nothing to ease the trust deficit in French politics.”
“Despite protests, Macron-style reforms are needed — and not only in France” Editorial Board, Washington Post: “French President Emmanuel Macron announced… a controversial reform of the country’s generous retirement system, a plan that two-thirds of the French public opposes and that in recent weeks has inspired crippling transit strikes and massive protests. Piles of putrid garbage have mounted on Paris’s streets. … Mr. Macron’s struggle reflects that of politicians in the United States, Japan and elsewhere, who face the challenge of providing a decent retirement for increasing numbers of aging citizens without draining resources rising generations need to lead decent lives. Despite this long-term imperative, forcing needed reforms to old-age benefit programs in democratic societies has so often proved impossible, and not just in France: A rare moment of bipartisan applause in President Biden’s recent State of the Union address came when he pledged to protect Social Security and Medicare, despite the glaring need to prevent them from busting the federal budget in coming decades.”
One more opinion piece from the Left: Paris is still burning, but Macron survives by a hair David A. Andelman, CNN Opinion
FLAG THIS
Reform Push Causes Macron's Popularity To Take a Hit
A new poll shows Macron’s popularity has taken a hit amid his push for pension reform, with 70% saying they are “dissatisfied with the president.”
That’s per the IFOP barometer, which fell by 4% over the past month alone. Macron’s popularity is now as low as it was during the so-called Yellow Jackets protest in 2018.
Dating back to December, Macron’s popularity has fallen by 8%, leaving just 28% “satisfied” in his presidency (Le Figaro/Le Journal du Dimanche).
Do you agree with France’s decision to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64? |
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Exxon Valdez, Most Popular (and Hated) President, Helena’s History
On This Day in 1989: One of the worst oil spills in U.S. history begins when the supertanker Exxon Valdez, owned and operated by the Exxon Corporation, runs aground on a reef in Prince William Sound in southern Alaska. An estimated 11 million gallons of oil eventually spilled into the water.
Today I Learned Prostitution was the biggest source of employment for women in Helena, Montana in the 1870’s and 80’s. In 1886 there were 52 prostitutes working the city. The madams became so wealthy they bought up blocks of downtown property and even started their own mortgage company.
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