Paris (AFP)

The government has proposed to Paris Opera dancers, on strike against the pension reform project, that the new text comes into force only for dancers recruited from 2022, according to a document consulted by AFP.

"The reform will come into force for dancers recruited after January 1, 2022, while the current rules will be maintained for dancers recruited before this date", write the Minister of Culture Franck Riester and the Secretary of State for Pensions Laurent Pietraszewski in a letter dated 23 December addressed to the director general of the Paris Opera Stéphane Lissner, revealed by Les Echos.

In a text published the next day and shared on Facebook by several dancers from the Opera, they oppose the government.

"We are offered to personally escape the measures, to see them applied only to the next generations. But we are only a small link in a 350-year-old chain. This chain must extend far into the future: we cannot be the generation that has sacrificed the following, "they say.

The Paris Opera dancers (Garnier and Bastille) are currently retiring at age 42 given the "arduousness" of their profession, the risk of injury and the fact that the majority of dancers can hardly continue to dance the great ballets beyond this age with the same level of excellence.

The Opera and the Comédie-Française are the only cultural institutions affected by the government reform. The special regime of the Opera dates from 1698, under Louis XIV.

The strike at the Opera resulted in the cancellation of several shows and losses amounting to 8 million euros, according to figures released by the institution at the start of the week.

A few hours before Christmas on December 24, dancers from the Opera ballet corps performed swan lake paintings on the forecourt of Garnier, accompanied by the symphony orchestra, to denounce a reform which, according to them, "puts in danger "their job.

In the letter to their director, the government also proposes to develop "a professional retraining system" for the few dancers (6 per year on average over the last 5 years) who will stop each year.

In this letter, as well as in another sent to the Comédie Française, the government invites the directors of the two institutions to conduct consultations with it on the implementation of the reform, from the beginning of next year until autumn 2020. The results of this work will be incorporated into the texts implementing the law.

© 2019 AFP