Macron: & quot; Pension reform will be carried out & quot;

• France: 42 special regimes to one: this is the pension reform in Macron

President Emmanuel Macron promised a few hours before the end of the year 2019 that "the pension reform will take place", despite the transport strike and demonstrations that have been taking place across the country for almost a month .

"The pension reform that I have committed to do before you and that the government has implemented will be carried out," Macron announced in the traditional speech that the presidents of France make to the nation on December 31, the equivalent to the speech given by the King of Spain on Christmas Eve. The French president defended in his speech the pension reform he wants to implement and which he considers "a project of justice and social progress".

Macron wants to merge the 42 current pension schemes and establish a universal point system in which all workers enjoy the same rights in their retirement for the same contributions. Now some workers of the so-called "special regimes" - such as those of the SNCF (the French RENFE) and the Paris metro - retire earlier or with better conditions than the rest of the French workers .

Most unions oppose the pension reform considering that the French will have to work longer and will charge less money than now. The unions say they will continue strikes and demonstrations in the streets until the government withdraws the reform. The sector where the strikes have been most noticed these days have been in the transport with mass stoppages since last December 5 on railroads throughout France and on the Paris metro "

"I hear a lot of lies and manipulations" about pension reform, said Macron, who hoped that Prime Minister Édouard Philippe would find "a way of quick engagement" with the unions "who want it." Macron said he will move on with the calendar of reforms, as he is not willing to continue to yield anything "to pessimists and immobility."

The French president is confident that "2020 should open the decade of the nation's rediscovered unity. I will fight with determination against the forces that undermine national unity," Macron added.

This is the third time that President Macron delivered a speech at the end of the year to the nation. After the honeymoon of the first year, the 2018 speech was marked by the protests of the "yellow vests" and that of this year by the transport strikes against the pension reform.

In the end of the year speech, the president has dedicated five of the 18 minutes that his speech has lasted to talk about this star reform of his quinquenato. Until now, Macron had spoken little in public about the pension reform and had let Edouard Philippe be the one to face the French.

As expected, the opposition criticized Macron's speech. "Once again ... nothing," Marine Le Pen , leader of the National Right-wing ultra-right party (former National Front), wrote on Twitter. Jean-Luc Mélenchon , leader of the left-wing party La Insumisa France, considered that more than good wishes for the new year, Macron's speech was "a declaration of war to millions of French who reject his reform." "All the rest of his speech sounds false and hollow. An alien has spoken," Mélenchon added on that social network.

The pulse between unions and government continues in the new year. January will be a decisive month for pension reform. On January 5 marks a month of the beginning of protests and strikes in transport. The Executive will receive two days later to the unions and the social partners. And on January 9 the unions have convened another new day of stoppages and demonstrations against pension reform.

The calendar to negotiate will be tight . On January 22 it is expected that the Council of Ministers approve the pension reform and that the National Assembly begin to discuss the bill in February.

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