All eyes are on the Constitutional Council, which must announce Friday, April 14 at the end of the day, after three months of political and social crisis, its decisions on the pension reform and on the project of the left referendum of shared initiative (RIP) aimed at thwarting it.

The pension reform, which was a campaign pledge of Emmanuel Macron before his re-election in April 2022, has sparked strong opposition in France. Reminder of ten key moments of a project that follows a first attempt at reform, more ambitious, during the first five-year period, stopped net, on March 16, 2020, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

>> Read also: The Constitutional Council, master of the destiny of the pension reform

  • January 10, 2023: reform at age 64

After a period of consultations, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne unveiled on 10 January 2023 a reform that provides for the postponement of the legal retirement age from 62 to 64 by 2030 and the increase of the minimum pension for full full-time careers, to 85% of the net minimum wage.

  • 19 January: a first massive mobilization

United front of the unions against the project: they mobilize massively on January 19 with "more than two million" demonstrators, according to the CGT, and 1.12 million participants, according to the Ministry of the Interior.

  • January 31: record processions throughout France

On 31 January, a second day of inter-union protest brought together record processions: 1.27 million according to the police, 2.5 million for the unions.

  • 6 February: Electric debates at the National Assembly

On 6 February, debates began in the National Assembly under high political tension and pressure from the street, with two new days of protest, on 7 and 11.

  • 17 February: First reading ends without debate or vote

The examination at first reading, constrained in time by the legislative procedure chosen by the executive, ends in the Assembly on 17th February, without debate or vote on the flagship measure of the postponement to 64 years due to the obstruction of La France insoumise (radical left).

  • 7 March: A "historic" mobilization

The unitary mobilization of March 7 is of a "historic" scale: 1.28 million demonstrators according to the police, 3.5 million for the CGT. Strike movements affect transport, garbage collection, activity in fuel depots/refineries, electricity/gas, education.

>> Read also: Pension reform: a government communication often pinned

  • March 11: The Senate adopts the entire text

On 9 March, the Senate approved the article on raising the retirement age, then adopted the entire text of the reform on 11 March.

  • March 16: the government draws the 49.3

The uncertainty surrounding the vote of some LR deputies (right) leads Emmanuel Macron to opt, on March 16, for a passage in force, with an adoption without vote in the Assembly, according to the procedure of 49.3.

Two motions of censure were rejected on 20 March, one of which, transpartisan, was narrowly rejected. The reform is adopted.

  • 23 March: blockades and strikes intensify

Blockades and strikes are intensifying in refineries, transport and ports. A ninth day of protest brought together, on the 23rd, more than a million people (police figures) and was marked by violence.

>> Read also: What are the Brav-M, these police units criticized for their muscular methods?

The heavy-handed methods of the BRAV-M motorcycle police, focus the criticism. Social unrest led to the postponement of King Charles III's first official visit in France at the end of March.

  • 14 April: verdict of the Constitutional Council

Three new days of protest, on 28 March, 6 and 13 April, show a loss of momentum in the mobilization. On 14th April the Constitutional Council delivered a long-awaited verdict on the reform as well as on a draft referendum on pensions carried by the left.

With AFP

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