Original article (in Croatian) was published on 06/04/2023
The French do not shy away from strikes and demonstrations to show what they think of the government’s moves.
Seventeen years have passed since unions and students, through persistent protest actions across France, managed to force the then Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin and President Jacques Chirac to abandon a controversial legislative proposal that was supposed to reduce the high rate of youth unemployment. The legal solution that referred to the first employment contract for young people up to 26 years of age (CPE, le contrat de premier embauche) allowed employers, among other things, to hire young people on a two-year trial period, but also to fire them at any time without giving reasons (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6).
From mid-January 2006, when the CPE was presented to the public, until the beginning of April, when the government abandoned the controversial bill, protests, strikes, university blockades, and clashes with the police spread across France. Disobedience accelerated after the then French Prime Minister, in the absence of support for the law, resorted to the so-called “49.3” measure in early February. More precisely, this refers to article 49.3 of the French Constitution, which gives the prime minister the right to accept a legal act immediately and without a vote. The Constitutional Council confirmed the legal proposal at the beginning of March, but it did not last long. Pressured by the mass rebellion of the French, Prime Minister de Villepin gives up on the CPE after less than a month of implementation.
Seventeen years later, history repeats itself. But this time, mass protests are caused by the pension reform and the increase in the retirement age from 62 to 64. The protesters hope to persevere in overturning the legal solution which, they think, is tearing apart the welfare state.
Emmanuel Macron, the French president, announced the pension reform at the end of 2019. Not without reaction. From December of that year until the end of February 2020, France went on strike, protested, and clashed with the police over a reform that, among other things, raises the retirement age. The legal proposal collected over 40,000 amendments from opposition MPs, and already in February 2020, Edouard Philippe, the French Prime Minister at the time, announced that the reform would be adopted based on Article 49.3 of the Constitution (1, 2, 3, 4, 5).
The decision of the Constitutional Council is expected next week
The reform of the pension system in France, however, was postponed by the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as by the 2022 election cycle. In the space of several months, the presidential and parliamentary elections were held in which Macron lost the parliamentary majority (1, 2). And while the world has not yet recovered from the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic, new shocks followed as a result of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.
The reactivation of the pension reform in France has thus been postponed until the beginning of 2023. Since January 10, when the reform was introduced in France, strikes, protests and frequent clashes with the police have not stopped. The government “pushed” the controversial reform through parliament on March 16, invoking Article 49.3 of the Constitution, which allows laws to be passed without a vote in parliament.
Just like on the streets, it was stormy in the parliament as well. Left-wing MPs sang the national anthem in an attempt to prevent Elisabeth Borne, the French prime minister, from speaking. Borne defended the reform and application of the constitutional article by shouting into the microphone.
The decision to implement the pension reform without a vote spontaneously brought citizens to the streets again. Thousands of protesters gathered in the centre of Paris. They threw stones at the police, who responded with tear gas and water cannons. In other cities too, people spontaneously took to the streets because of the government’s “violent” implementation of the reform.
The street fight has been going on since January when the pension reform was introduced.
Next week, on April 14, the decision of the Constitutional Council on the government’s application of Article 49.3 of the Constitution is expected. Ahead of the decision, unions continue to invite the French to “put on their retirement shoes” and join them in a new protest against raising the retirement age.
They want the government to withdraw the disputed legal proposal, and the government is telling them that this is not possible. Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne’s only meeting with the unions since January, when the reform was presented, ended without a single agreement. The government refused to review the pension reform, and the trade unions are inviting citizens for a general mobilization (1, 2). Two days before the start of the spring holidays, which according to the authorities could calm the rebellion of the French, they again took to the streets of the cities to protest against the reform. On the eleventh day of the general mobilization, the government announced that they failed to convince the French of the pension reform (1, 2).
Labour mobilization
France is among the countries whose citizens do not shy away from strikes and demonstrations to fight for their rights, which are often accompanied by clashes with the police. Although only about eight percent of French citizens are unionized, the power of labour mobilization is enormous. This is shown not only by the current events surrounding the pension reform but also by the earlier outings of citizens to the streets – spontaneously or at the invitation of the trade unions.
President Macron and his government are staunchly defending the pension reform and, for now, do not intend to budge even a millimetre on the union’s demands.
In the past, unions have stopped pension reforms and other labour market reforms through strikes and “streets”. Like the current reform, which brought more than a million people (according to the authorities’ estimates) and over two million (according to the unions’ estimates) to the streets of France in previous protest activities, the encroachment on the pension system also caused a mass rebellion earlier.
Revolts, often characterized by violence, however, did not always lead to the withdrawal of reforms. Equally, the failures of trade unions and citizens to prevent reforms did not sway them to call again, through organized strikes and demonstrations or spontaneous gatherings, for a clear expression of dissatisfaction.
History of protests
More than a million people thus demonstrated in 1995 against attempts to make changes in the social and pension system at that time. As soon as Jacques Chirac was elected president in 1995, his prime minister, Alain Juppé, presented a plan to reform the social and pension system. The presentation of the plan resulted in a three-day paralysis of the country due to strikes. The culmination of the rebellion took place on December 12, when almost two million people took to the streets. Three days later, Juppé gave up on the part of the reform concerning the pension system.
Millions of French protested in 2003 because of the pension reform, but also in 2010, when the retirement age was increased from 60 to 62 under Nicolas Sarkozy. Millions of people on the streets, traffic blockades, and strikes did not “prevent” Sarkozy to sign the disputed law.
Strikes, protests, and demonstrations against the new Labor Law, which was pushed through by the then President of France François Hollande in 2016, lasted for five full months. Even then, the government referred to the constitutional provisions when passing the law from which it did not deviate despite the strong opposition of the citizens. Like many previous, as well as later, revolts by the French, this one was also characterized by violence.
And in 1993 (as it happened again in 2006), France was facing high unemployment, because of which the government tried to employ more young people by liberalizing the market. However, after more than a month of protests by high school students, students, and trade unions, liberalization was abandoned and a solution was found to stimulate companies that employ younger workers.
These are just some of the protests where French people took to the streets as a reaction to the government’s actions. The tradition of public expression of opinion, or protest, which often turns into violent conflicts, has been nurtured for centuries, since the French Revolution of 1789, whose influence was felt far beyond the borders of France.
The French are proud of their power of mobilization, especially when it comes to the achievements of the welfare state.
In Croatia, for example, it is impossible to obtain information about the number of organized strikes and the reason for their organization from official sources. We don’t have a culture of protests and strikes, and in Croatia, the referendum was only organized when it was announced that the retirement age would be raised to 67.
The French keep track of it, and it is very easy to find a base of strikes and movements against government policies from 1791 to the present day.
This base does not include unofficial actions, such as the Yellow Vests movement, which developed in France and crossed its borders. This movement (Mouvemet des gilets jaunes) was born at the end of 2018 out of resistance to Macron’s policy at the time. The trigger for the activation of the Yellow Vests was a rise in prices, new taxation (primarily gasoline and diesel to encourage citizens to buy electric cars) and a drop in living standards. Over time, the movement spread to Belgium, the Netherlands and Italy (1, 2).
How many strikes are there in Europe?
The strike is a significant part of the labour culture in Europe, which is sought to protect workers. However, in some countries, industrial actions are more frequent, that is, workers more often resort to this form of pressure. The French like to strike, oppose the government and express their opinion.
According to data from the European Trade Union Institute, Etui, in the period from 2000 to 2009, the average number of days without work due to strikes (per thousand employees) was the highest in Spain – 153 working days on an annual basis. In that period, France took the second position with an annual average of 127 days spent on strike. Denmark is in third place with an average of 105 days spent on strike, followed by Belgium and Finland with 70 days on strike.
Between 2010 and 2019, Cyprus took the first position with an average of 275 days per year spent on strike. France retained its “silver medal”, with an average of 128 days per year spent on strike. All other European countries do not even come close to the figure of 100 days per year.
The last period for which Etui collected data refers to the period from 2020 to 2021, but not for all countries. In those two years, France took first place with an average of 79 days per year spent on strike. It is followed by Belgium with 57 days, Norway with 50 days and Denmark and Finland with 49 days spent on strike.