Protesters hold a banner reading Last warning during a youth demonstration against the French government's pensions reform plan in Paris on March 9, 2023. PHOTO AFP PARIS - French President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday that a deeply unpopular new law that raises the retirement age was necessary and would enter into force by the end of the year.
He stated that he had no regrets and wanted to improve a fraught relationship with labor unions, and involve them more in future reforms, including retraining for those in painful jobs.
Macron spoke to TF 1 and France 2 TV in an interview. The reform is necessary because there are not a hundred ways to balance the accounts. Until the government passed the pension bill without a vote, the protests against extending the retirement age by two years to 64 had gathered huge, peaceful crowds in rallies organized by unions.
Since the decision to skip a vote in Parliament last week, spontaneous protests in Paris and elsewhere have seen rubbish bins and barricades set ablaze every night amid scuffles with police.
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On Wednesday, protesters blocked train stations in the southern cities of Nice and Toulouse.
The most serious challenge to the centrist president's authority since the Yellow Vest revolt four years ago is the rolling strikes that affect oil depots, public transport and garbage collection.
Labor unions have announced another nationwide day of strikes and demonstrations on Thursday.
"We don't want this law and we'll fight until it is withdrawn," said the pensioner Jacques Borensztejn at a rally in Paris on Tuesday.
Macron said that extreme violence was not acceptable, while he respected the right to peaceful protests.
He said that we'll make sure that a life that's as normal as possible can resume in the face of the few that block things.
Political leaders in Macron's camp have said that neither a government reshuffle nor snap elections are on the cards, but rather an attempt to regain the initiative with measures to better involve citizens and unions in decision-making.
ALSO READ: Trains and flights in France to be halted in the pension reform strike.
While the opposition wants Macron to fire his prime minister, Elisabeth Borne, who has been at the forefront of pension reform, Macron supported her in the interview and said he had tasked him with widening the majority.
Macron's camp lost a majority in the lower house of parliament last year.
She Borne has a trust in the government to lead a legislative program to have fewer laws, shorter, clearer texts and continue to widen this majority as much as possible. Polls show that a majority of French people are opposed to the pension legislation, as well as the government's decision to push the bill through parliament last week without a vote.
Macron said he would stand firm.
I choose the general interest between the short-term polls and the general interest of the country. He said that we will not tolerate any misbehaviour.
He said that we do not have a right to standstill or immobility.