To prove he still has political capital to serve his remaining four years in office, the president will seek wins on defense, green industry and migration.
  • French President Emmanuel Macron burned through huge amounts of political capital and personal popularity to achieve his long-held ambition of raising the retirement age.
  • Macron believes “he must prove that he is not doomed to domestic impotence within the next four months,” said Mujtaba Rahman, managing director for Europe at Eurasia Group.
  • He will seek key wins on defense spending, a green industry bill and migration, analysts said — though some will prove more challenging than others.
  • SynapseEnglish
    2•2 years ago

    He didn’t have much political capital to begin with, give the circumstances of his re-election in 2022.

    • @dystopOPEnglish
      1•2 years ago

      i personally think he was pretty brave to take on such an unpopular reform. it’s really easy to pass the hot potato on when it comes to pensions.

      • SynapseEnglish
        3•2 years ago

        The problems with the reform are multiple:

        1. It was not necessary to maintain the financial balance of the pension fund
        2. There are alternatives that were proposed but the government refused to discuss them
        3. The reform got pass by bypassing all democratic institutions (all votes in the parlement rejected the proposal, the government used the 49-3 law to skip the vote

        The money saved by this pension reformed is used to balance the tax-cut granted to big fortunes by Macron during his first term.

        Anyone counting on a retirement pension has valid reasons to be against this reform.