The move threatened to enrage unions and other critics of the pension plan, including protesters gathered in spots around France on Friday evening as the decision came down. Macron's political opponents vowed to maintain pressure on the government to withdraw the bill.
As tensions mounted hours before the decision, Macron invited labor unions to meet with him on Tuesday"whatever the decision by the Constitutional Council," his office said. The president did not grant a request last month by unions for a meeting. Unions have been the organizers of 12 nationwide protests since January and have a criticial role in trying to tamp down excessive reactions by protesters.
French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne was interrupted while visiting a supermarket outside Paris by a group of people chanting"We don't want it," referring to the way she skirted the vote by lawmakers to advance the pension reform. The president's drive to increase the retirement age has provoked months of labor strikes and protests. Violence by pockets of ultra-left radicals marked the 12 otherwise peaceful nationwide marches that unions organized since January.
"The Constitutional Council can only censure this brutal and unjustified reform," the union said in a statement.