Tag: pensions

France braces for new strikes against Macron’s pension reform

France braced Monday for another day of mass protests and strikes over proposed pension overhauls being pushed by President Emmanuel Macron, with the government and its left-wing opponents trading blame for the expected disruptions. Around 1.1 million people took to the streets for the first strike day on January 19, according to official statistics, the biggest demonstrations since the last major round of pension reform under right-wing president Nicolas Sarkozy in 2010. A police source […]

France gripped by strikes, protests against pension reform

by Alice HACKMAN Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — More than a million people marched in France on Thursday to protest pension reforms, with some demonstrators clashing with police in Paris, as strikes disrupted public transport, schools and much of the civil service. The interior ministry put the total number of protesters marching against President Emmanuel Macron’s plan to extend the retirement age at 1.2 million, including 80,000 in Paris. The hard-left CGT union said […]

Pres. Macron postpones French pension overhaul to January

Paris, France (AFP) French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday that he was pushing back his presentation of a major pensions overhaul denounced by labour unions, citing recent leadership changes at two opposition parties. Both the Greens and the right-wing Republicans have elected new chiefs, and Macron said he would consult with them before unveiling details of the major reform on January 10, instead of Thursday as planned. “This will give a few more weeks for […]

Social security chief says Italy needs more migrants

ROME, Italy (AFP) — Italy needs more migrants in order to pay for the population’s pensions, the country’s social security chief said Wednesday, drawing the ire of far-right interior minister Matteo Salvini. If we halved migratory flows “in five years we would lose population equivalent to that of Turin”, Boeri said referring to the country’s important northern industrial hub. If immigration were reduced to zero we would lose “700,000 people under 34 years of age […]