French presidents have been trying for more than 25 years
to reform the pension system in this country. As
you can see, it's not going very well.
Fundamentally, the French pension regime isn't different from many
others in Europe where levies on workers pay the pensions
of the retired. But French people spend more time
on retirement leading to funding shortfalls that are contributing to
a public debt burden that is high and rising with
the population aging, the national pension deficit could balloon
to as much as 0.8% of annual economic output in
the next decade. At a time when France will
face other spending challenges. France's minimum retirement age of
62 is one of the lowest in Europe according to
the government raising that to 64 and increasing the minimum
period of contributions to access. A full pension will
eliminate the system's deficit by 2030. Politically, Macron
has little to lose himself as he can't be kicked
out of power and neither can he run for a
third term. But legacy is important and the far
left and far right have set their sights on the
2027 election to defeat Macron's centrist movement. Most of
the opposition is coming from ordinary people and labor unions
who say there are better ways of reforming France's pension
system including increasing taxes on companies on the margins of
the protests. There has been some violence particularly since
the French president used a special constitutional measure to bypass
a vote in parliament. Not at all, the
world's population of people aged 60 years and older is
going to double by 2050 and fertility rates are in
a long term decline. So the financial strain on
old age support systems is rising across the globe.
The French system is politically sensitive because vast sums pass
through public coffers. The last time Macron pushed a
pensions overhaul in 2019, it triggered some of the
longest strikes in French history that came on top of
the protests against fuel taxes. Now, the situation
isn't much better with the strongest inflation since the 1980
s and growth slowing last time Emmanuel Macron backed down
in the face of the COVID pandemic. This time
, he's given little indication he'll do the same.