International Worker’s Day: The Worst American Holiday Hits France

In March, after encountering opposition to a pension-reform proposal to increase the retirement age from 62 to 64 that the government says is necessary to stave off insolvency, French president Emmanuel Macron opted to ram through the legislation without a vote of lawmakers in the National Assembly, pursuant to his authority under Article 49.3 of the French constitution. This move prompted a subsequent no-confidence vote that the government narrowly survived and infuriated opponents of the bill. Since then, France has been wracked by civil unrest.

While Macron’s steamrolling of the lower house of the French parliament undermined the democratic legitimacy of the legislation, it was wholly consistent with the French constitution, and the underlying policy is sound. France needs pension reform, and hostility to the law seems absurd given that its citizens will still retire earlier than their peers in Germany, the U.K., Spain, and most other European nations.

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Bobby Miller

Bobby Miller is an ISI Fellow at National Review and a graduate student at Georgetown University.

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In March, after encountering opposition to a pension-reform proposal to increase the retirement age from 62 to 64 that the government says is necessary to stave off insolvency, French president Emmanuel Macron opted to ram through the legislation without a vote of lawmakers in the National Assembly, pursuant to his authority under Article 49.3 of the French constitution. This move prompted a subsequent no-confidence vote that the government narrowly survived and infuriated opponents of the bill. Since then, France has been wracked by civil unrest.

While Macron’s steamrolling of the lower house of the French parliament undermined the democratic legitimacy of the legislation, it was wholly consistent with the French constitution, and the underlying policy is sound. France needs pension reform, and hostility to the law seems absurd given that its citizens will still retire earlier than their peers in Germany, the U.K., Spain, and most other European nations.