By Athena Papakosta

“The president of France is not a king. He should listen to the people.” “What else do we need to do to get the government to listen?” “I heard the president yesterday and he doesn’t care about us.” “We are protesting for the society we desire.” The above words belong to four different Frenchmen and women who yesterday, Thursday, took to the streets of France demanding the withdrawal of the Macron government’s pension reform.

The outburst of anger in the country grew further after the interview given by the French president on Wednesday. The situation is now chaotic, especially in the French capital, Paris. At least one million citizens demonstrated across France. 800,000 protesters alone took part in the marches and demonstrations in the City of Light.

The presence of police forces was strong. The first incidents in the cities started after the marches ended peacefully. Rocks, bottles, fires, tear gas, wood. Already by seven in the afternoon the first arrests were a fact. The situation was also very serious in the city of Bordeaux where the town hall was set on fire.

One might wonder what all this… national drama is for? In the rest of the Member States of the European Union, the minimum retirement age is now 65 or even 67 years, as in Greece. Can’t the French conform to the dictates of the economy? Or are they right after all?

There are economists who, with a series of examples, insist that with a minimum retirement age of 62, the system will remain financially viable. At the same time, in France the percentage of those who are over 55 years old and have been put out of work is one of the highest as while they themselves are looking for work companies are not willing to hire them or otherwise those who are working are fired.

The French judge the reform in question as unfair both to women and to precarious workers as well as to low-middle income workers, because instead of correcting the already existing inequalities, it is exacerbating them.

In particular, for women, they emphasize that it is doubly punishing. The insurance years required in France for retirement will be 43 years increased by one year. But women have the most discontinuities in their professional career because, for example, they have children. Either they will stop working for a period of time to devote themselves to their upbringing or they will take, for example, most parental and special leaves. Therefore increasing the required years of insurance for them means with certainty that the 64 years do not apply to them. If we take into account that the pension for women in France is 40% lower than that of men, then their “no” to the Macron reform makes sense.

“Everyone believes that the law is unfair but that it mainly punishes women who are expected to raise the next generations of the country and then find out that they are being punished for it,” Marie, a social worker, told the British newspaper “The Guardian”. .

“They want to raise the minimum retirement age to 64 today. Tomorrow; Will they take it to 66? Or maybe in 67 and 68? Shall we work until our legs give way?’ says Juliet, 51, a teacher by profession, expressing the deep-rooted view in French society that the French should retire early while their health is still good to enjoy another decade of good life.

It has already been announced that next Tuesday, March 28, will also be a strike day. Paris is drowning in garbage, 14% of gas stations in the country are facing shortages, the level of kerosene supply at Paris airports is at a critical point and the ports in Marseille and Brest remain blocked.

The crisis in France is swelling further and as long as Macron continues to remain aloof and the first to disdain parliamentary democracy with his decision to activate Article 49:3 at a time when the dominant political parties in his terms know the discredit so the far-right Le Pen will continue her upward trajectory and in 2027 she may succeed in coming to power.