After months of protests in France against pension reform, President Emmanuel Macron launched a 100-day program to unify the country. Macron said on Monday that Prime Minister Elisabeth Bourne should make proposals on working conditions, security, education and health. “We should be able to take stock on July 14th,” he said, referring to France’s national holiday.
Ahead of us are 100 days of calm, unity, ambition and work for France. Macron lamented that pension reforms are not supported by a wide majority.
In a first reaction, the head of the country’s largest union, CFDT’s Laurent Berger, said the speech failed to address people’s anger in the country. “There’s a kind of void there, it doesn’t contain anything, we were expecting something different,” he said. Unions have said that unless the controversial pension reform is reversed, there will be no talks with the government on other issues.
On Friday, the Constitutional Council approved the core of the reform. It was introduced by Bourne with a constitutional hoax without a vote through Parliament. According to opinion polls, the vast majority of French people oppose the changes.
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