France and the pension crisis

The pension reform in France condenses in itself the deep crisis, with the smell of the end of the age, of a Fifth Republic that should move away from the excessive leading role of a Jupiterian president, but with feet of clay, and the metaphysical emptiness of a Soulless executive, chosen for his bureaucratic virtuosity, but who is incapable of soundly defending a project that shows, at least, a triple paradox.

On the one hand, Macron clings to his electoral promise, even knowing that he was not elected because of his program but because it represented the most effective way to stop Le Pen's unstoppable advance.

And it is that the legitimacy to approve measures in a democracy cannot come only from the weight of the votes, even more so when it collides head-on with what public opinion perceives as fair or in accordance with the common interest.

Macron's majority is negative,

because it does not come from enthusiasm but from the rejection of his rival.

That is why he should seek agreements with other political actors, although he seems not to have learned much from the crisis of the yellow vests, that amorphous movement, without a face or articulation, that almost ended his mandate.

Macron now faces the unions, which have recovered part of their legitimacy with this crisis, since they are the ones who understand the problems and difficulties of work, the diversity of the professional worlds and also their fears, especially in a country where the 37 % of workers believe that they will not keep their job until retirement.

The reform also shows a youth that takes to the streets out of solidarity with their elders and out of fear of not enjoying the same right to rest.

It is the “covid generation” or “cursed generation”, which is dragging the effects of pandemic isolation with an unprecedented rate of depression and is torn between inflation and homelessness while precariousness increases on university campuses.

A devastating report from

it showed mold-filled bedrooms in public residences and provided a scandalous fact: one in five students receiving food aid in the capital is a student at a

.

All this in the seventh world economic power.

Even Thomas Piketty has denounced France mortgaging its future in this way due to lack of investment in education.

The deafness of the Government in the face of the reform crisis, in short, increases the discontent while the main opposition leader continues with her strategy of demonization.

It is the third paradox: in the face of Éric Zemmour's extremism, Le Pen no longer needs to clean up his image.

He now looks at himself in the mirror of Mélenchon and the impeccable left position of him who despises any agreement and thus allows Le Pen to show himself as a republican force of order.

“The Unsubmissive France is in the system and wants to be outside the institutions.

We are outside the system, but in the institutions”, said the leader of National Regrouping.

And this is how his chance for power slowly approaches, in direct inverse proportion to Macron's growing distance from the real world.

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