French court approves contentious plans to raise country’s pension age

Published

2 years ago

April 14, 2023

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Contentious plans to raise the pension age in France have been approved by the country’s highest constitutional court.

France’s Constitutional Council has ruled in favour of the government’s reforms, which will see the pension age increase from 62 to 64.

The plans sparked widespread protests after president Emmanuel Macron’s government invoked Article 49.3 to push the changes through without a vote by MPs last month.

France’s state retirement age is 62 – much lower than many of its European neighbours. In the UK it is 66, Germany and Italy 67, and Spain 65.

Protesters clashed with police shortly after the court’s decision was announced, with teargas used on a group of demonstrators in Lyon, while bikes were also set on fire in the French capital, Paris.

Mr Macron, who has described the changes as a “necessity” to salvage France’s pensions system, will now sign the reform bill into law within the coming days.

The law will take effect at the beginning of September, according to France’s labour minister. However, the country’s labour unions have urged Mr Macron not to sign the bill.

One of France’s largest unions, the CGT, has said leaders will no longer engage in talks with the president if he signs off on the pension reforms.

It comes after nearly 400,000 protesters took to the streets across France on Thursday in a final push in protest at the proposals.

The country has faced weeks of demonstrations and at times the protests have turned violent, with demonstrators clashing with police.

Protesters stormed the headquarter of LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH) – which also represents brands including Christian Dior, Fendi and Givenchy – on Thursday.

Demonstrations also took place in towns and cities across the country – including in Rennes where a Mercedes was set on fire.

What is the retirement age in France – and how is it changing?

France’s state retirement age is 62 – much lower than many of its European neighbours.

French workers can receive a state pension from the age of 62, but it will be less if that person has not made the required number of contributions.

Aged 67, they are entitled to the full state pension regardless of their contributions.

Mr Macron’s changes will see the age that workers can receive a state pension increase to 64.

This will be done gradually by three months a year from September 2023 until September 2030.

The number of years someone will have to make contributions to get the full state pension will increase from 42 to 43 in 2027.

End of the road for those hoping to block pension reforms

Lisa Holland

Communities correspondent

@LisaatSky

For those who have fought long and hard, and been involved in demonstrations on a weekly basis, and for those who have been on strike and gone without pay, this is a bitterly disappointing decision by France’s Constitutional Council.

It is the end of the road. It is a line in the sand from a legal perspective.

President Macron may have seen off the legal crisis though, but he still has a political crisis because there are many, many angry people who say that their voice was not heard and that the French government did not listen to them.

They are also disappointed because not only is the pension age going to be increased from 62 to 64, but they won’t be getting a referendum, which they’d also called for so that they could have a say and that they could have a vote.

President Macron says there is no winner or loser, but those involved in the strike action at a protest where I am now in central Paris say they will continue to strike and that their determination to stop this doesn’t end now.

And that means that France is the loser because this will continue to be a city dogged by demonstrations, protests, violence potentially and crippled by strikes.

But French workers have reacted with fury to the proposals, with unions sharing a great a pride in France’s pensions system.

There is also anger among those approaching pension age, who say the changes will scupper their plans to retire.

What is Macron’s argument?

France’s generous welfare state has long weighed heavily on the economy and workforce.

In the third quarter of 2022, national debt stood at 113.4% of GDP – more than in the UK (100.2%), Germany (66.6%), and similar to struggling economies like Spain (115.6%) and Portugal (120.1%).

It also means the workforce is shrinking. There are only 1.7 workers for every pensioner in France, down from 2.1 in 2000.

“This is Macron’s flagship policy,” David S Bell, emeritus professor of French government and politics at the University of Leeds, told Sky News.

“He wants to push it through before he steps down at the end of this term.

“But the problem isn’t an immediate crisis – it’s a future burden based on economic projections. It’s the opposite to the way politics works, which is to focus on the immediate, headline-grabbing issues.

“His argument is that unless these reforms are made, and the French working life is made longer, the country won’t be able to afford it.”

Addressing strikes on French TV, Mr Macron argued: “This reform isn’t a luxury, it’s not a pleasure, it’s a necessity. The longer we wait, the more [the deficit] will deteriorate.”

What happens now?

France’s Constitutional Council, the highest constitutional court in the land, has now given Mr Macron’s government the go-ahead to push forward with the plans.

The council is made up of nine people – three appointed by the president, three by the head of the National Assembly (lower house of parliament), and three by the head of the Senate (upper house of parliament).

Largely former lawyers, business people, senior civil servants and ex-politicians, they oversee the final stage of approving any new law – and consider whether it adheres to the constitution.

There is one final mechanism unions can use to stop the bill going through – a referendum – but for this they would have to get the approval of both the council and 10% of voters within the next nine months.

It has not been successfully used since it was introduced in 2015.

The government hopes the approval of the plans will bring an end to nationwide protests. But there is no guarantee the disruption will end.

World

Plane crashes into college campus in Bangladesh – at least 19 people dead

Published

5 hours ago

July 21, 2025

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Plane crashes into college campus in Bangladesh - at least 19 people dead

At least 19 people have died after a Bangladesh air force plane crashed into a college campus, the military said.

The aircraft crashed into the campus of Milestone School and College in Uttara, in the northern area of the capital Dhaka, where students were taking tests or attending regular classes.

The pilot was one of the people killed, and, according to the military, 164 were injured in the incident.

The Bangladesh military’s public relations department added that the aircraft was an F-7 BGI, and had taken off at 1.06pm local time before crashing shortly after.

Video shows fire and smoke rising from the crash site, with hundreds looking on.

The cause of the crash was not immediately clear.

Bengali-language daily newspaper Prothom Alo said that most of the injured were students with burn injuries.

Citing the duty officer at the fire service control room, Prothom Alo also reported that the plane had crashed on the roof of the college canteen.

Rafiqa Taha, a 16-year-old student at the school who was not present at the time of the crash, told the Associated Press that the school has around 2,000 students.

“I was terrified watching videos on TV,” she added. “My God! It’s my school.”

World

Homes burning after mass pillaging and 30,000 trapped in besieged city – as Syria’s fragile ceasefire holds

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5 hours ago

July 21, 2025

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Homes burning after mass pillaging and 30,000 trapped in besieged city - as Syria's fragile ceasefire holds

The main road entering the besieged Syrian city of Sweida from the west has changed dramatically over 12 hours.

A bulldozer, parked on the side of the road, has been used to create several berms to form a sand barrier around 25km (16 miles) from the city centre.

Dozens of Syrian security forces were standing in lines in front of the barricades when we arrived, and there were forces further up the road stopping vehicles from going any further.

The Arab tribal fighters we’d seen fighting furiously inside the city the day before were now all camped alongside the road. Some were sleeping on the back of their pick-ups.

“We’re not giving up,” one shouted to us as we walked towards the checkpoint.

The ceasefire agreement between Druze leaders who are bunkered down inside the city and the Bedouins – and the tribal fighters who have flocked to join them – has frustrated some.

Some of them, waiting with guns slung over their backs, are itching to return to battle. But for now, tribal leaders have instructed them to hold fire.

How long that will last is probably key to Syria’s future and whether it can be a peaceful one.

Khalaf al Modhi, the head of a group of tribes called United Tribes, told the group of fighters: “We are not against the Druze. We are not here to kill the Druze.”

But he spent many minutes castigating the senior Druze cleric inside Sweida whom many of the tribes see as the agitator behind the violent clashes.

Hikmat al Hijiri is head of a Druze faction that is deeply suspicious of the new government led by Ahmed al Sharaa and is resisting ceding power to Damascus.

The retreat of the Arab tribes from the city centre means the Druze militia under Hijiri’s control are now the ones deciding who goes in or out of the city.

About 30,000 mostly Druze people are thought to be trapped inside the city and surrounding towns, with no electricity, little internet and dwindling supplies of food and water.

The humanitarian situation is dramatically worsening by the day. But at the time of writing, there were still no agreed safe corridors to bring out those pinned inside.

On top of this, there are nearly 130,000 people displaced and forced out of their homes because of the fighting, according to UN estimates.

Maintaining the ceasefire is key to ensuring solutions are found to help those suffering, and quickly. It’s also the most serious challenge facing the new Syrian leader and his interim government.

The level of distrust between the Hijiri-led Druze faction and the new government is strong and deep. So much so that the Druze leaders have refused to accept truckloads of aid organised by any of the government outlets.

The new Syrian leader has struggled to convince the country’s minorities that their safety under his leadership is assured.

Druze civilians and human rights activists reported mass killings and executions of Druze by government troops who were sent in last week to quell the latest clashes between the Druze and Arab Bedouins who have been at odds for many years.

Government forces pulled out of the city only after Israel unleashed a spate of airstrikes, saying they were defending the Druze. The bombings killed hundreds of Syrian troops.

But with the withdrawal of the government troops, the Arab Bedouin population said the city’s Druze militia embarked on a string of revenge atrocities.

That in turn led to thousands of tribal fighters massing from around the country to defend their Arab brethren.

When we were inside the city, we saw multiple corpses lying on the streets, and many appeared to have been killed with a shot to the head.

Homes and businesses are still burning after mass pillaging as fighters retreated.

And now, there is a growing humanitarian disaster unfolding.

Additional reporting by camera operator Garwen McLuckie, specialist producer Chris Cunningham, as well as Syrian producers Mahmoud Mossa and Ahmed Rahhal.

World

Who are the Druze and who are they fighting in Syria?

Published

5 hours ago

July 21, 2025

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Who are the Druze and who are they fighting in Syria?

Sky News special correspondent Alex Crawford is in Sweida in Syria, where she has witnessed mutilated, burned and decomposing bodies after a week of fierce fighting in the region.

Government security forces have been redeployed to enforce the first day of a US-brokered ceasefire. Tensions remain high with fears of further violent clashes. Hundreds have died.

The clashes involve a religious sect called the Druze and other rivals factions in Syria.

Here’s what you need to know about the conflict and who’s involved.

Who are the Druze?

The Druze religious sect is an offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of Shiite Islam. About half of the roughly one million Druze worldwide live in Syria, with most others in Lebanon and Israel, including the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The Druze largely celebrated the downfall of Bashar al Assad in December after an almost 14-year civil war, but were divided over interim president Ahmad al Sharaa, a former militant linked to al Qaeda who led Islamist rebels to overthrow the Syrian autocrat.

A few months after the transition government forces clashed with pro-Assad armed groups on Syria’s coast, spurring sectarian attacks that killed hundreds of civilians from the Alawite religious minority to which the former president belongs. (Assad now reportedly lives in exile in Russia).

The violence left other minority groups, including the Druze in the south, and the Kurds in the northeast, increasingly mistrustful of the new Sharaa government and worried whether it would protect them.

Multiple Druze militias have existed for years, originally set up to protect their communities against ISIS fighters and drug smugglers – and they have been reluctant to lay down their arms.

Government supporters often paint Druze factions as potential separatists or tools of Israel, where they are seen as a loyal minority within and often serve in its military.

What are the factions?

Diana Darke, an author, Arabist and Middle East cultural writer, told Sky presenter Barbara Serra there are three main Druze factions, two of which are keen to ally with the government, but the third is controlled by anti-government leader Hikmat al Hijri.

Sky News special correspondent Alex Crawford says that that faction feels vulnerable and mistrusts the government, who they see as Islamic jihadis.

Why did the violence break out?

Deadly clashes broke out last Sunday in the southern province surrounding the city of Sweida between Druze militias and local Sunni Muslim Bedouin tribes.

Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the conflict started with the kidnapping and robbery of a Druze vegetable seller by members of a Bedouin tribe who set up a checkpoint, leading to tit-for-tat attacks and kidnappings.

Ms Darke says “horrible outbreaks of sectarian violence” are inevitable in a civil war-ravaged country with so many groups – and Sharaa doesn’t have “enough manpower” to prevent it.

Who else is involved?

Hijri called for intervention from Israel, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said they would help to protect the Druze.

Israel bombed key military installations and carried out airstrikes which killed hundreds of Syrian government troops, who were initially sent to restore order before effectively siding with the Bedouins.

Thousands of fighters from Arab tribal groups across Syria also flocked to the area to support the Bedouin tribe.

“There has been absolutely brutal mayhem and total anarchy inside the city with mass looting, mass pillaging, and it looks like a substantial number of deaths,” says Crawford.

She says the tribes claim they “are not against the Druze, that this is not a sectarian fight, although it looks very much like that to outsiders like myself and many others”.

They have been directing their anger towards Hijri faction, with Khalaf al Modhi, the head of one group called United Tribe, seen telling followers: “We aren’t here to fight and kill Druze… we are here to stop that criminal Hijri who asked Israel to bomb our country.”

Has a ceasefire been negotiated?

By Wednesday, a truce had been negotiated, allowing Druze factions to maintain security in Sweida as government forces pulled out, although fighting between the Druze and Arab factions continued.

Crawford says she’s been talking to doctors, engineers, and architects who’ve travelled from the cities of Aleppo and Damascus with guns on their backs primarily to provide humanitarian aid, but also to fight Hijri, “who they see as a criminal gang leader who now has the backing of Israel”.

The US, another key global player, has indicated its displeasure with the Israeli strikes in Syria and with the government for withdrawing its troops from Sweida.

US special envoy to Syria Tom Barrack announced a ceasefire had been brokered between Israel and Syria on Saturday, hours before Syria’s internal security forces began redeploying to Sweida in a bid to restore order.

Syrian leader Sharaa said Sweida “remains an integral part of the Syrian state, and the Druze constitute a fundamental pillar of the Syrian national fabric,” vowing to protect all minorities in Syria.

What could happen next?

The situation has calmed, but it could go either way, says Crawford, adding: “I wouldn’t describe the ceasefire as anything other than fragile and shaky.”

Afraa Hashem from the Syria Campaign group said the chain of violence “is not isolated” and is growing beyond southern Syria.

“It’s spreading in northern Syria and dragging Syria towards civil war,” she told Sky presenter Barbara Serra.