Why the French Have Gone on Strike Again
Pension reforms are notoriously hard to sell. The French president owes workers a clearer explanation of exactly what he’s got up his sleeve.
How long will France be closed for business?
Photographer: Christophe Morin/BloombergFrance went on strike Thursday with transportation disrupted, some roads blocked and many schools closed. But the reason for the protests isn’t really there yet: Though President Emmanuel Macron has vowed to reform the country’s pension system, he hasn’t presented a specific bill describing how this will be done.
That the French are protesting against a plan that has yet to be finalized shows Macron was right to some extent in 2017, when he called France “not a reformable country” and last year, when he referred to the French as “Gauls who are resistant to change.” But there’s a more generous explanation, too: As is often the case with Macron, he has teased ambitious changes without properly explaining how they would impact those affected by them. The strikes are as much about Macron’s haste and perceived distance from people’s everyday struggles, as they are about his generally sensible ideas on changing France’s complex and expensive retirement benefits system.