French government spokesman Olivier Véran said Saturday that the reform raising the retirement age by two years will come into force on September 1.
It is the September date that was chosen,» Véran said in statements to the TF1 channel. He also stressed that the retirement age will rise »little by little» from the current 62 years to 64. »At the end of the five-year term, it will be 63 years. It will be necessary to wait until the next five-year presidential term» for it to be raised to 64 years», the spokesman stressed.
Asked why the law was enacted in the middle of the night from Friday to Saturday, Véran said the government »needs to move forward peacefully with the French and the social partners. »It is not contradictory to have enacted this law,» he stressed.
Véran acknowledged that »the last few weeks have been difficult for many French people», for which he said he was »convinced that there is a will, a need for appeasement in the country». In this sense, he assured that the president, Emmanuel Macron, »will immediately approach» the unions for dialogue.
The unions are the main organizers of the mobilizations of the last weeks against the pension reform and have warned that they will not sit down to negotiate unless the initiative, now converted into law after its publication in the Official Journal of the French Republic, the official gazette of the French State, is withdrawn.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
