“People can work around it today and tomorrow, but next week people may get annoyed,” said 56-year-old cafe owner Isabelle Guibal. Macron wants to simplify France’s unwieldy pension system, which comprises more than 40 different plans, many with different retirement ages and benefits. Rail workers, mariners and Paris Opera House ballet dancers can retire up to a decade earlier than the average worker. On Thursday afternoon, thousands of strikers marched from the Paris’s Gare Du Nord through the center of the city. In the cities of Lyon and Marseille, thousands more protesters carried banners that read “Macron get lost” and “Don’t touch our pensions.” In Nantes, eastern France, police fired tear gas at protesters.

Source: National Post December 05, 2019 07:41 UTC