In the French national motto, of course, you have - liberty, equality, and fraternity, or solidarity. There’s a fierce French attachment to the view that this country does not want a brutal form of capitalism - that solidarity and equality are extremely important. What is it, and why is it so different? roger cohen So tell us about the French idea of this. So this idea that millions of people are out on the streets for a proposal that bumps it up to 64 is really pretty remarkable. I mean, I was going to say that in the United States, of course, the retirement age goes up to 67. Poking fun at Macron, who is widely hated for what he’s doing, and talking about how life begins when work ends, which is a deeply held French conviction, very different from the American view that life is enriched and enhanced by work.

So it’s large numbers of people, laughing a lot. And the two main labor unions who have been organizing this have kept a pretty good organizational control of what’s happening. There’s been very few incidents of actual violence. While it’s a very serious protest, the atmosphere has been, on the whole, fairly festive. Fortunately, the weather has been cold, so the stink of it is not appalling as it might be. And because the garbage collection service is on strike, garbage has been piling up into great mountains of trash, over head height. You can’t get a hold of the equivalent of the city bikes here. The metro or subway is scarcely functioning.

reporter 3įrench Union workers aiming to shut down critical industries across the nation, walking off the job and into the streets. Massive numbers of people in the street, not only in Paris but throughout France. Now, people are here once again to say “non” to President Emmanuel Macron’s plans to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64. The result is that eight times in the last seven weeks, there has been tumult. These are new pictures just coming in to us this morning - the scene in the streets, just massive disruption. Well, Sabrina, there’s been an enormous degree of agitation and street protests in France over the last couple of months in response to President Emmanuel Macron’s push to raise the retirement age in France to 64 from 62. Help me understand what exactly is going on, why people are so upset. So Roger, I’ve been watching all of these protests in France - millions of people on the street. Today, as the French parliament votes on the proposal, Paris Bureau Chief Roger Cohen explains why it hit such a nerve in French society and why French President Emmanuel Macron pushed for it anyway. We’re protesting because we don’t want to spend the rest of our life just working without a retirement. Millions of people have taken to the streets in France to stop a government proposal that would raise the retirement age to be more in line with its European neighbors. sabrina taverniseįrom “The New York Times,” I’m Sabrina Tavernise, and this is “The Daily.” Please review the episode audio before quoting from this transcript and email with any questions. While it has been reviewed by human transcribers, it may contain errors. This transcript was created using speech recognition software. Transcript France’s Battle Over Retirement After months of street protests across the country, the moment has arrived for a pivotal vote on raising the pension age.

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