France’s Constitutional Council validates Macron’s pension reform

IN NORMAL TIMES a ruling by the French Constitutional Council on a piece of legislation is a formality. But France is in a state of , after months of protests against President Emmanuel Macron’s plan to raise the legal minimum pension age from 62 years to 64. The decision by the council on April 14th to validate this legislation will come as a huge relief to the president, who is still reeling from the diplomatic fallout from he made after his recent trip to China. But it is unlikely to put an immediate end to the protests, or to the domestic political crisis. Marine Le Pen, leader of the hard-right National Rally, described the writing into law of a “brutal and unfair” reform as the “definitive rupture between the French people and Emmanuel Macron”.It was a measure of the tense mood in France that, before the ruling, riot police set up a protective shield in front of the building in Paris that houses the Constitutional Council, formerly a palace belonging to French monarchs. Protests nearby were banned. Opponents had seen the council’s decision as the last chance to overturn the legislation, which Mr Macron’s government pushed through parliament in March using a procedure that avoided the need for a direct parliamentary vote. Protesters, opposition leaders and unionists have used strikes and marches to demand its retraction since January.