Across the country tonight, French cities grinding to a halt in the capital,
thousands of people taking to the streets after French President Emmanuel Macron
forced through an unpopular bill that raises the retirement age from 62 to
64 years old, and he did it without a vote.
>> It's hard to watch that from the United States and not imagine,
what if we took our social security and retirement as seriously as the French?
So their protests have been raging for many, many weeks now against
this proposed retirement to change the age from 64 to 62.
And it looks like Emmanuel Macron just decided he's gonna do it.
He is sick and tired, and he is just going to pass
this without a vote unilaterally, take a look.
>> Afternoon, France's Prime Minister Elizabeth Borne,
an ally of Macron, triggering a constitutional tool that
allowed the bill through with no floor vote.
>> [FOREIGN] >> The uproar immediate opposition
members shutting down the Parliament [INAUDIBLE] the French national anthem.
>> Macron has long insisted the reforms are essential to ensure the pension system
doesn't collapse.
Mathematically speaking,
the argument is the country will not be able to support future generations.
[FOREIGN] >> In the last three months alone,
there have been eight consecutive national strikes.
Millions of French workers,
from teachers to police to refinery workers have joined in.
A recent poll by AFP finds a majority of the French support,
the protest movement against pension reform,
and 59% support bringing the country to a standstill over it.
>> Okay, so there we have it.
The Prime Minister has decided that he's had enough with the protests,
yay democracy, but we gotta move it on and raised the age to 64 from 62.
So, this is something that can only be over overturned through article 49.3,
which I'm sure everyone is familiar within the French constitution.
It is widely seen, however, as a perilous move for the government as it allows MPs
to put forward a motion of no confidence within 24 hours, in the short term,
the government will have to survive several motions of no confidence that
are expected to be voted on on Monday.
This is graphic two.
Macron's government has faced down motions of no confidence in the past,
but the stakes are much higher this time around.
So, they could revoke this bill through this no confidence vote.
That means also that Macron's government would have to resign.
So I think the real question is, do French people and workers and
the 64% who oppose raising the retirement age,
do they have allies inside of parliament?
But I guess just overall thoughts on this move, Faron,
from Macron to do this unilaterally.
>> Yeah, I mean, it's certainly something that obviously just goes against the will
of pretty much everybody that's out in the street but watching this story and
then comparing it to what's happening here because we do have Republicans
kicking around the idea, let's raise the retirement age of social security.
We don't have nationwide protests.
We don't have people in the streets.
We don't have this unified public saying no,
this is our safety net program, we've paid into it our whole lives.
You're going to give it to us when it was promised to us.
We're just sitting back saying, well, maybe they've got a point,
which is what Republicans are doing, like, maybe it's not a bad idea.
No, they're giving us the blueprint right now.
When the government takes it away from you after promising it to you, after you
upholding your part of the bargain with these pension plans, it is owed to you.
And when they try to take it away, you stand up, you fight back,
you band together all political parties, which is what's happening there,
those people in the streets, and they're making their voices heard, and
Macron may pay the price for it.
We'll see.
But right now it's not looking, based on what I've seen, super great for
him in Parliament.
>> Faron, my question is how lazy are the French?
It's just two more years, go to work.
No, I'm kidding.
But no, you're absolutely right about how we,
I think the people that get affected by social security here,
at least on The Right, I think they fall for all the shiny objects, right?
They say, look, they're grooming our kids, LGBTQ, drug shows,
all that stuff, and they basically lull those people into not
realizing that they're gonna be taking away their social security.
Or as Rick Scott had said, famously, we wanna try to pass it every few years.
And of course, Biden called them out in the State of the Union speech, and
I think some people maybe woke up to it, but you're right, we are in no way.
I think a lot of times the people that are affected most by The Right,
pushing corporate agenda, and taking away any kind of
benefits that, that Americans have come in their way.
The people that affected the most also are the ones who support these
people the most.
A lot of times you go, how do you not see that these programs are gonna hurt you,
and they go, well, those immigrants coming in, so, whatever McCarthy and
whoever else says, I'm gonna go with it.
So we could learn from the French, and
we should realize that that our benefits are on the chopping blocks as well.
>> Absolutely, and interestingly, Trump is trying to hit the DeSantis specifically
and precisely on his proposals to cut social security and Medicare.
But I wanted to just early shout out a commenter which I
think is a really brings up a really important point.
Ojam says I mentioned yesterday, but
this is gonna sweep Le Pen into power in the next French election.
The Left will abstain out of dejection and protest, and The Right will win.
Then this might kill the EU, that's getting very, very ahead of ourselves.
But it's important to remember that Macron won by the skin of his teeth.
That Le Pen got a huge percentage of the vote, and that absolutely
the right populists, faux populist as they are, seize upon these moments,
use it to then again, ram down their xenophobia down people's throats, but
then attach it to like, but workers' rights kind of, right?
They pretend as if they're in solidarity with retiring folks,
and then they come into power, and then you've got Donald Trump, right?
That's what you will get on your hands and neoliberals and centrists consistently,
consistently miss out on being able to stave fascism off and
here you go once again, and for those who think, what are we talking about?
I just quickly, before we break after show,
the kinds of protests have been going on.
We got oil shipments halted by strikes, several refineries workers also
cutting France's nuclear output, garbage collectors on strike,
flights canceled, trains entirely stopped, dockworkers blockading seaports.
You've got meat packing and auto manufacturing workers walking off the job.
60% of teachers walked off the job.
So, estimates are 3.5 million people have involved in this protest.
So, nothing but solidarity and a shout-out to the French, and
we will see how this all shakes out.