Protests have erupted in France because of the government’s attempts to push through pension “reforms,” with the most infamous being raising the retirement age in France from 62 to 64, according to a March 17, CNN News article.
The protests included multiple strikes from most labor unions in the country, leading to major disruptions in cities, including Paris where garbage continues to pile up in the streets. The protests have also resulted in public transport cancellations.
Mary Pickering, professor of history at San Jose State, said protests and actions by the people of France have always been common.
“They’ve been doing it I guess since 1789. So whenever, you know, they have a disagreement, they do tend to go on the streets, Paris, especially,” Pickering said. “The streets are very narrow, so you can make barricades out of the cobblestones [streets] and throw rocks at police.”
Pickering said other times in France’s history where massive protests occurred were during The Franco-Prussian War in 1870. Civil war broke out in the country, resulting in thousands of prisoners dying. Another massive protest was in May 1968, during an infamous period of civil unrest where citizens were fighting against capitalism, consumerism, American imperialism and traditional institutions.
Pickering said when she lived in France in the 1980s, millions of people took to the streets to protest against the government subsidizing church schools.
She said a more recent group of protesters are the Yellow Vests, a group from Paris’ countryside who wear yellow traffic vests to protest the rise in gas prices.
The group conducts weekly series of grassroot, populist protests advocating for economic justice and later calling on institutional political reforms, according to an April 20, 2019 AP News article.
The movement quickly spread across the country among all political, social, regional and generational divides angry at the way the French government is currently run by President Emannuel Macron, according to the AP News article.
Pickering said Macron is not seen as a strong leader and the French population view him as elitist.
The pension reform bill that raises the retirement age includes a requirement that retirees have to have worked for at least 43 years, and is highly controversial.
France has one of the strongest pension systems in the world, with 14% of its economic output going toward its pension system, according to France 24, a French news website.
The system has enabled generations to retire with a guaranteed state-backed pension, according to the France 24 article.
The French government currently states that the reforms are necessary, as life expectancy has risen in the country, and has currently left the system in a “precarious state,” according to a March 23, New York Times article.
Macron has tried pushing pension reforms during his term as president, with the first attempt in 2019, which was also met with large protests across France, according to the New York Times article.
The reforms were delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic, but have now been pushed through Macron’s government by his prime minister, Elisabeth Borne.
Pickering said the French are used to having a state that has given them a quality of life which allows them a relaxed lifestyle.
“You know, the state gives the French all sorts of great things that we don't get from [the United States] – number one health care system in the world is really pretty great,” Pickering said.
“You know, I gave birth [in France], and I was in the hospital five days, I was like, ‘Wow, here, you have like an hour, right?’ ”
The key difference between Macron’s pension reforms in 2019 versus now is that he did not include raising the retirement age of the country, a reform highly unpopular with the French people, according to the same New York Times article.
France has one of the lowest rates of pensioners in poverty in the world, because of the system it currently has.
Its pension system is built off a pay-as-you-go system, where workers and employers have mandatory payroll taxes that are used to build the pension system in the country.
Philippe Martinez, the head of the CGT labor union, France’s second-largest union, said in an interview on French television in January that the age of 64 isn’t possible.
Martinez and other opponents of the reforms say Macron and his government have exaggerated the threat of projected deficits of the French economy because of the pension system.
“Let them visit a textile factory floor, or a slaughterhouse or the food-processing industry, and they will see what working conditions are like.” Martinez said in the Jan. 30 interview.
Another point of contention with Macron’s government is the use of Article 49.3, a provision in the French constitution which enables the government to push a bill through France’s national assembly without a vote, but allows a vote of no-confidence of the cabinet, according to a March 16, AP News article.
A vote of no-confidence means the majority of the government does not support a leader or governing body, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary.
Macron and his government ignored the protests of parliament to push through the deeply unpopular reforms, with Elisabeth Borne narrowly surviving a vote of no-confidence, according to a March 20 CNN News article.
Pickering said her French friends have not been happy about Macron’s use of Article 49.3.
“He's not really paying attention that 80% of the people don't want this rise in pensions,” Pickering said. “There doesn't seem to be any economic reason right now. It's just he's looking ahead. But you know, politicians don't really gain by looking ahead.”
Protests have gained worldwide attention, with many on social media saying Americans can learn from how the French protest, referring to tweets with videos of the current movement in France.
Mass protests in the U.S. have been brutally suppressed by police, with a report from Amnesty International USA documenting widespread and egregious human rights violations against American protestors, medics, journalists and legal observers who gathered to protest during the 2020 George Floyd protests.
The U.S. has one the most heavily armed police states in the world, with nearly 90% of American cities with populations over 50,000 having SWAT teams, four times that of the 1980s, according to a May 18, 2015 Economist article.
The American Civil Liberties Union cites the excessive militarization of police in the U.S. as unnecessary and dangerous because of federal funding to local and state police enforcement agencies with tactics and weapons of war, according to its webpage.
Another reason for the success and action of protests in France is because of the makeup of parliament in the country, with nine political parties represented who are able to listen to the demands of people. This is more than the U.S., where the two main parties are the Democrats and Republicans, according to a Dec. 12, 2018 Time Magazine article.
“Democrats and Republicans, you know, aren't really as different as in France, where you have Marine Le Pen on the right, and then the communists on the left and then three or four in between,” Pickering said. “. . . they still have their own newspapers or political organizations, so that makes a big difference to the people [who] can get others agitated and Paris is really the center of the country.”
