The unpopular pension reform, with its flagship measure of lowering the retirement age to 64, was promulgated this Saturday morning in the Official Journal, after the validation of most of the text by the Constitutional Council.
After the decision of the Constitutional Council on Friday, the inter-union had asked “solemnly” President Emmanuel Macron “not to promulgate the law”. A request remained a dead letter: by promulgating the text, the Head of State opposed an end of inadmissibility. The President of the Republic had fifteen days after the validation of most of the reform measures on Friday by the Constitutional Council to affix his signature, thus giving it the force of text.
The officially modified social security code
“The Social Security Code is thus amended (…) In the first paragraph, the word: ‘sixty-two’ is replaced by the word: ‘sixty-four'”, states the text. The Constitutional Council on Friday validated the essentials of the pension reform and blocked a first request for a referendum of shared initiative (RIP) from the left, which hoped to start collecting 4.8 million signatures for an unprecedented consulting the French.
“There is no winner or loser,” assured Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, referring to “the end of the institutional and democratic journey” of the text adopted in the Assembly after a 49.3. “It’s not over,” promised the inter-union in response, convinced that not enacting the law was the “only way to calm anger (…)”, which refused an invitation from Emmanuel Macron. The Constitutional Council has recognized the “unusual nature” of the accumulation of procedures aimed at restricting debates in Parliament.