France's Constitutional Council approves raising retirement age from 62 to 64

France's Constitional Council on Friday sanctioned the controversial core of President Emmanuel Macron's pension reform - the plan to raise the legal retirement age from 62 to 64.

Laurent Fabius was appointed president of the Constitutional Council in February 2016. © AFP

The nine-member body, which met in central Paris on Friday amid tight security, rejected a request for a shared initiative referendum on an alternative pension law that would keep the retirement age at 62.

It also dismissed six other measures deemed unnecessary for the reform.

The council said the government's deployment of Article 49.3 last month had not been unconstitutional.

"The combined use of the procedures implemented was unusual but did not have the effect of rendering the legislative procedure contrary to the constitution," said the council.

The council - established in October 1958 with a brief to review the constitutionality of laws - was called on after the stormy passage of Macron's policy through the Assemblée nationale.

Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne was forced to use Article 49.3 to bulldoze the law through the lower house of parliament.

Borne blamed MPs in the Les Républicains (LR) party for the last-minute decision to avoid a vote and unleash what is considered in French political circles as the nuclear option.

Option

"Some members of the LR group played a personal card and went against their group," Borne told TF1's 8pm news programme on 16 March.

The numbers might not have been there for the bill to pass," she added. "We couldn't gamble on it."

On Friday night, just after the council's decision, Jean-Luc Melenchon, leader of the La France Insoumise party,  vowed on social media to continue the nationwide campaign against the law.

La décision du Conseil constitutionnel montre qu'il est plus attentif aux besoins de la monarchie présidentielle qu'à ceux du peuple souverain. La lutte continue et doit rassembler ses forces.

— Jean-Luc Mélenchon (@JLMelenchon) April 14, 2023

 "The decision of the Constitutional Council shows that it is more attentive to the needs of the presidential monarchy than to those of the sovereign people," Mélenchon said on Twitter.

However, Eric Ciotti, the LR leader, struck a more conciliatory tone. He urged all sides to accept the council's decision.

"The censure of certain articles sanctions the government's methodological errors," he added. 

"We call for the rapid convening of a major social conference on purchasing power and work. The question of work must return to the heart of our discussions."

Rassemblement National MP, Marine Le Pen, said Macron had divided himself from the country.

"The entry into force of this reform will mark the definitive break between the French people and Emmanuel Macron," said the former leader of the far right party who Macron beat during last year's presidential elections.

She said that should her party come to power, it would set up what she called a progressive, fair and financially sustainable pension system.

Rethink

Less than an hour after the council's decision, labour unions urged Macron not to put the law into effect despite having championed the measure during his first period in office and placing it at the heart of his programme for his second and final term which began last May.

A statement said the unions would only respond to Macron's offer for talks next Tuesday as long as pension reform was among the topics for discussion.

However, their stance is likely to maintain the breach between the two sides.

Borne tweeted the council's decision had ended the required democratic procedures.

#Retraites | Le @Conseil_constit a jugé, tant sur le fond que sur la procédure, la réforme conforme à notre Constitution.

Le texte arrive à la fin de son processus démocratique.

Ce soir, il n’y a ni vainqueur, ni vaincu.

— Élisabeth BORNE (@Elisabeth_Borne) April 14, 2023

 "This evening, there are no winners nor losers," she added.

But notions of a stalemate were rapdily repudiated. "We are in a democratic impasse," the Green Party national secretary Marine Tondelier told the French news agency AFP.

"The reform is legal but more illegitimate than ever. The political parties, the unions, the French people will not move on," she added.

Socialist party boss Olivier Faure said: "We are faced with a bad, unfair, illegitimate law, even if constitutionally it has been validated."

The Communist party chief Fabien Roussel told BFMTV: "I call on the president of the republic and Elisabeth Borne not to promulgate this law. It would be a real slap in the face, a provocation," he added.