A law changing France’s retirement age from 62 to 64 was passed by President Emmanuel Macron today and will take effect on September 1, the Lusa government announced.
“The September date has been chosen,” government spokesman Olivier Véran told TF1 channel, quoted by Spanish agency Europa Press.
Véran said the increase in the retirement age would be gradual.
“Finally [atual] For a five-year term, that would be 63. We will have to wait until the next five-year presidential term [para que seja elevada para 64]”, he said.
Despite having 15 days to do so, Macron promulgated the law at dawn this morning, allowing it to be published in the official gazette in the morning.
The government “must move forward peacefully with the French and social partners,” Veran said.
“Approving this law is not contradictory,” he said.
The reform, pushed by Macron against the wishes of the unions, has been contested in the streets, sometimes violently.
“The last few weeks have been difficult for many French people,” Veron said, defending “the need for peace in the country.”
A government spokesman added that Macron would “immediately approach” the unions for talks.
Unions have been the main organizers of recent weeks of protests against pension reform.
Union leaders have warned they will not sit down to talks unless the initiative, now passed into law, is withdrawn following its publication in the French Republic’s official gazette.
Macron will address the nation on Monday at 20:00 in Paris (19:00 in Lisbon).
Unions and the left accused the head of state of provoking the swift legislation passed in the middle of the night.
According to the Spanish agency EFE, labor representatives rejected the president’s invitation to a meeting on Tuesday, April 18.
Although it censored six articles, the Constitutional Council confirmed most of the reforms.
The court found the law constitutional because it took into account the survival of the pension system and increased life expectancy.