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      jean luc melenchon

      Protesters participate in a demonstration against the French government's plan to raise the retirement age in front of the National Assembly in Paris, on March 16, 2023.

      Enraging Workers, Macron Bypasses Parliament With 'Nuclear Option' on Retirement Age Hike

      "What the government is doing makes people sick of politics. It should improve people's lives, not destroy them," said Rachel Keke, a leftist in France's National Assembly.

      Jessica Corbett
      Mar 16, 2023

      Amid protests against French President Emmanuel Macron's unpopular plan to overhaul the country's pension system, his government on Thursday chose the "nuclear option," opting to use a constitutional procedure to force through reforms, including raising the retirement age from 62 to 64, without a vote in the lower house of Parliament.

      While the proposal passed the Senate, the upper chamber of Parliament, 193-114 Thursday morning, "reports indicated that the ruling party, which lost its overall majority in elections last year, was a handful of votes short" in the National Assembly, which led to an emergency Council of Ministers meeting about triggering Article 49.3, Le Mondeexplained.

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      ​Protesters march in Paris on January 31, 2023.

      "Citizens' Insurrection": Huge Protests in France Aim to Kill Macron Pension Plan

      "It's not often that we see such a mass mobilization," said leftist leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

      Kenny Stancil
      Jan 31, 2023

      Hundreds of thousands of enraged workers across France walked off the job and hit the streets Tuesday to protest President Emmanuel Macron's unpopular plan to raise the nation's official retirement age from 62 to 64.

      It marks the second time this month that French workers have mobilized against Macron's attack on the country's pension system. Nationwide strikes and marches on January 19 brought out between one million and two million people, and labor unions aimed to match or exceed those numbers on Tuesday, with roughly 250 demonstrations planned around the country.

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      Left-wing MP Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the New Ecologic and Social People's Union, delivers a speech in Paris on June 19, 2022 after initial results came in during the second round of France's parliamentary elections.

      Neoliberal Macron Loses Parliamentary Majority as Melenchon-Led Left Surges in France

      The president of far-right National Rally, meanwhile, celebrated a "historic breakthrough" as Le Pen's xenophobic party won a record 89 seats.

      Kenny Stancil
      Jun 20, 2022

      France's new left-wing coalition picked up enough votes during Sunday's legislative elections to help deny President Emmanuel Macron the absolute majority he needed to ram through his unpopular austerity agenda.

      Macron's neoliberal alliance Ensemble won the most seats in the National Assembly with 245 but fell well short of the 289 needed to control parliament.

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