Paris, Mar. 22, (dpa/GNA) – French President Emmanuel Macron defended his controversial reform of the country’s pension system in a television interview on Wednesday with French broadcasters.
“This reform is not a luxury, it’s not for entertainment, it’s a necessity for the country,” he said in an interview with the TF1 and France 2 channels.
Macron asked the two journalists: “Do you think it’s fun for me to make this reform?” He answered with a clear “no.”
“The truth here is that there is one thing I regret, and that is that we didn’t manage to share the obligation, or more precisely the need, to make this reform.” However, he said, he does not live on regrets, but rather on will, tenacity and commitment.
France’s centrist government wants to gradually raise the retirement age from 62 to 64. The number of years to pay in for a full pension is to rise faster. The reform cleared the last parliamentary hurdle on Monday evening when two motions of censure against the government failed.
It is currently before the Constitutional Council. For weeks there have been strikes and protests against what is probably Macron’s most important project in his second term. New strikes and protests are to be held on Thursday as well.
Macron stressed that the pension fund is no longer balanced. “And the longer we wait, the worse it will get.” He said alternatives to reform had been to cut pensions, raise taxes or build up more debt.
The president rejected all of those options. Referring to the massive popular rejection of the reform, Macron said, “between the polls and the short term and the general interest of the country, I choose the general interest of the country.”
“We are asking people to make an effort. It’s never popular.”
GNA