When French President Emmanuel Macron managed to bypass the National Assembly by getting the Constitutional Council to approve a law raising the legal retirement age in France from 62 to 64, he paid a heavy political price. After months of bitter protests and angry strikes in which hundreds of thousands participated, a large majority of French were bitterly opposed not only to the law itself, but to the man who had successfully pushed it through. Macron’s approval rating – never robust – sank this month to only about 20 percent, the lowest it had ever been.
Americans found it absurd the French should have clung so tenaciously, so furiously, to a retirement age that was completely at odds with how long we now live. So did fiscal experts who know for a fact that with our lifespans considerably longer now than they were a few generations back, it’s fiscally irresponsible not to raise the retirement age. No matter. The French felt that what most of us think of as early retirement was a right to which they were entitled.
Impossible to know how history will treat the incumbent French president. It’s conceivable he’ll be rated more highly in the future than he is in the present. What we do know though is this.
First, leading liberal democracies – especially in opposition to strong public opinion – has become exceedingly difficult. It’s the big difference between democracies and autocracies. Specifically, it’s much easier to lead the latter than the former. It’s why when autocracies are “economically benevolent,” they can achieve economic transformation while weak democracies tend to stagnate.
Second, Macron is in the second term of his presidency, which means he cannot run again. It seems, then, that he is willing to trade his popularity for his performance – because his popularity is a currency of diminishing value. He doesn’t have to worry as much now as he did earlier in his political career about fending off challenges, or about compromising for purposes that are tactical and practical.
To be clear. The next presidential election is not until 2027, which means that Macron will be president for four more years. So, he is not done trying to get things done. Still, he might have calculated that a major victory on the issue of France’s retirement age will, notwithstanding heavy short-term costs, reap long-term benefits. Whatever his thinking … his doing certainly took guts.