“Pension reform, after this first round, the battle of determination”

The ballot boxes against the street, the street against the ballot boxes. Classic confrontation each time it is a question of passing a difficult or unpopular reform. From Spain, Emmanuel Macron recalled the legitimacy he had to reform pensions insofar as this promise had been “clearly said” and clearly heard – it was even probably the only one – during his campaign, only nine months ago. Whereas Thursday’s protests attracted indisputably large crowds, even more than the organizers had hoped, the Head of State wanted to recall that his determination would not be indexed to the size of the processions.

In private, Macron evokes the precedents of 1995 and 2010, two examples of pension reform which had not been announced during the preceding presidential campaign. The outcome, however, had not been the same. Chirac had given up touching special diets when Sarkozy had succeeded in postponing the legal age of departure…