PARIS (Reuters) -French Union leader Laurent Berger, a leading critic of Emmanuel Macron’s pension bill, will step down in June, at a time when protests against the president’s widely unpopular reform risk losing momentum.
Berger, 54, announced his exit from the powerful Democratic Confederation of Labour (CFDT) union in an interview with Le Monde newspaper. His deputy, Marylise Leon, will succeed him, he said.
With Berger’s departure, unions are losing another key figure in the pension battle after Macron forced his bill, which raises France’s retirement age by two years to 64 – still below the European Union average – through parliament.
Philippe Martinez left the helm of the hardline CGT union in March.
With unions calling for more massive protests on May 1 against the reform, which Macron’s government says is needed to plug an anticipated shortfall in the pension system, Berger denied his departure would weaken efforts to keep up the pressure.
“I realise this is a particular period, who knows if it will be any different in October or in June? I am not essential to the CFDT,” he said.
Macron said Berger is “someone I respect and whom I even consider a friend,” when asked to comment on the news. “We disagreed on pension reform… Under other circumstances, he is someone with whom I always worked very well,”
While Berger did not resist Macron’s first attempt to reform the pension system in 2019, he staunchly opposed a second try this year after the president ignored his calls for broader talks about how to make the system fairer while ensuring it is economically viable.
First elected to head the CFDT in 2012, Berger was overwhelming re-elected last June for a final four-year mandate, but also said at the time he did not intend to finish his term.
(Reporting by Dominique Vidalon, Bertrand Boucey, Elisabeth Pineau; editing by Leigh Thomas and John Stonestreet)
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Source: The Print
