Crowd confronts French health minister over pension reform

By Ahmet Gencturk

ATHENS (AA) – France’s health minister was confronted by an angry crowd Monday over the country’s recently passed pension reform, local media reported.

The protest by around 300 people took place in the city of Poitiers, where Francois Braun came to visit a public hospital, said the La Nouvelle Republique newspaper.

The protesters shouted slogans denouncing the reform and made noise with pots and pans, it said.

The controversial pension reform plan was signed and promulgated on April 15 in the Official Journal.

President Emmanuel Macron signed the bill after the Constitutional Council finished its review, despite demands by trade unions to drop the measure, which has triggered weeks of protests.

The council, which is made up of nine people who are known as "the sages," partially approved the bill while rejecting six of its measures, including those regarding senior workers.

The bill includes raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 by 2030, requiring at least 43 years of work to be eligible for a full pension, with workers and trade unions among others vehemently opposing the plan.

The government unveiled the reform proposal in January and it was taken up for parliamentary debate the following month even as millions took to the streets to oppose it.

Unrest intensified when Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, after consulting with Macron, decided to use special constitutional powers to adopt the bill without parliamentary approval in March.

The decision was driven by fear that lawmakers would be able to block the reforms as the government lacks an absolute majority in the legislature.