"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," tweeted Jean-Luc Mélenchon. The former presidential candidate added: "The struggle continues and must gather its forces."
The Constitutional Council has validated the flagship measure of raising the legal age of departure to 64 years while rejecting some measures of the government project such as the creation of a "senior index".
"We are in a democratic impasse," Marine Tondelier, national secretary of the Greens, told AFP. "The reform is legal but more illegitimate than ever."
She warned: "the parties, the unions, the French will not move on." Ms. Tondelier said she was also "shocked" by the rejection of the citizens' initiative referendum requested by the left.
"It's a disappointment, it's not a surrender," PS First Secretary Olivier Faure said. "We are facing a bad, unjust, illegitimate law," "even if constitutionally it has been validated" in law, he added.
"We solemnly call on the President of the Republic not to promulgate this law," said the president of the LFI group in the National Assembly Mathilde Panot.
"There were plenty of arguments not to validate this law," Fabien Roussel, the national secretary of the PCF on BFMTV. "I call on the President of the Republic and Elisabeth Borne not to promulgate this law within 48 hours as we see fit, it would be a real slap in the face, provocation," he added.
© 2023 AFP