In France, protests rise after government approves pension law

French President Emmanuel Macron’s controversial plan to raise the retirement age in the country from 62 to 64 was signed into law on Saturday. The signing came a day after it was approved by the Constitutional Council, the highest authority on the French constitution in the country. Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne said the decision marks the end of “the institutional and democratic path” of the plan.

Some pieces of the proposal, including concessions fought for by union groups, were not approved by the council, and therefore not passed into law. Union advocates, who were already against the plan, said that the exclusion of the concessions made the bill “even more unbalanced,” according to the BBC.

The pension reform plan, which Macron first announced in January, has been met with mass protests and strikes in what is being called France’s worst social unrest in years. 

After the council’s ruling on Friday, hundreds of union activists and demonstrators took to the streets of Paris in protest, demanding that the government withdraw the bill and threatening more protests across the country, ABC reported. Demonstrators caused multiple fires across the city, and more than 120 were arrested.

On Wednesday, around 100 protesters gathered in front of the mayor’s office in the French village of Muttersholtz. Macron had visited the village in order to address the public’s concerns over the pension reform as part of a broader attempt to calm the anger much of the French public has toward the pension plan.

During the visit, trade union members banged frying pans and lids in front of the French president before police were forced to push them 200 meters from the building. Macron said that moving forward, he will focus on re-industrialization and providing more job opportunities for citizens. 

“It’s not saucepans that are going to allow France to move forward,” Macron told the demonstrators, according to The Guardian. “We can relaunch the French saucepan industry, we don’t produce enough. The reality across the whole country is not just those making noise with saucepans or complaining.”

In Spain, government prioritizes long-term drought

Pedro Sánchez, the prime minister of Spain, set the country’s issues with long-term drought as a top priority for his government during a recent parliament meeting, referring to it as one of the “central political and territorial debates” of the coming years.

According to Spain’s national weather service, 2022 was the country’s hottest year ever recorded. Average daily temperatures rose above 15 degrees Celsius for the first time since records started in 1961, and average temperatures rose by 1.6 degrees during the summer. 

In L’Espluga de Francoli, a town near Barcelona that has suffered from water scarcity in the past, the drought has worsened the problem. Maria Gonzalez, a resident of the town, told Deutsche Welle that she and other locals would keep water in bottles to brush their teeth and wash their faces, and would often shower either at work or the gym.

Northern Catalonia, home to around six million people and one of the worst affected regions in Spain, is likely to declare a “drought emergency” by September, said Samuel Reyes, the head of Catalonia’s water agency, according to the Associated Press. The region is currently undergoing water restrictions, with its reservoirs at 27% capacity.

In southern Andalusia, reservoirs are at an even lower capacity: 26%. Farmers in the region, as well as in other agricultural areas across the country, have experienced a devastating loss of crops due to drought.

According to the Associated Press, Luis Planas, Spain’s agricultural minister, said that the country is committed to negotiating with the European Union to temporarily relax agricultural regulations and improve Spanish farmers’ working conditions. The country, which is the world’s largest olive oil producer, is likely to produce at least 10% less olive oil due to drought than the 3.1 million tons it produced in 2021.

 “[The government must] issue an emergency decree so it can adopt measures to address the catastrophic situation that many farmers and breeders are facing,” Andrés Góngora, a representative for a Spanish farmers association, told Deutsche Welle. “This year, unfortunately, there won’t be any green shoots, but instead a lot of red numbers.”

In Italy, government approves anti-migration law

The Italian senate approved a bill aimed at restricting refugees and asylum seekers from staying in the country on Thursday, according to the Italian news agency ANSA. The policy, championed by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, was passed 92-6, and will go to the country’s lower house of parliament for final approval. 

The approval comes roughly two months after a boat carrying nearly 200 migrants crashed near the southern coast of Italy, killing at least 67, including children. A week before the crash, Meloni had advanced a policy that would restrict non-governmental search-and-rescue boats, making it more difficult for migrants to enter Italy through the Mediterranean Sea. 

Last week, Meloni declared a six-month national state of emergency due to a “sharp rise” in migrant arrivals along southern shores. The emergency status is meant to help manage the country’s influx of migrants by reducing the time needed to fund new housing for asylum seekers.

Roughly 33,000 migrants have arrived in Italy so far this year — a significant increase from the nearly 8,500 in 2021 and 2022.

Matteo Salvini, the former interior minister and the leader of the country’s right-wing Lega Nord party, said that he wants to get rid of the country’s “special protection” status, which allows tens of thousands of migrants from countries such as Libya, Tunisia and Turkey to stay, legally work and rent housing in Italy for two years after their arrival.

Meloni also supports eliminating the policy.

Contact Yezen Saadah at [email protected].