• The legal retirement age would progressively climb from 62 to 64.
• Workers’ unions have called for a major walkout on January 19.
• The government has stated that it will not back down.

France, Paris: As part of a statewide strike over the government’s proposal to extend the amount of time individuals must work before they can retire, the majority of French trains will be cancelled on Thursday. Flights will also be impacted.

The administration will be put to the test on Thursday to see if the widespread opposition to the proposed reform, which would raise the retirement age from 62 to 64, can cause serious problems.

Workers’ unions have called for a major walkout on January 19 and a march through France. The government has stated that it will not back down and has urged workers not to paralyze the country.

Only one in three to one in five high-speed TGV lines will be operating, and only one in ten local TER trains, the SNCF train operator said.

International travel on the Eurostar and Thalys lines is expected to be nearly normal, but the Lyria connection with Switzerland is expected to be severely interrupted and other international rail connections are expected to be completely cancelled.

The vast majority of RER commuter trains in Paris will be cancelled, while three metro lines will be completely shut down and many more will be impacted, according to the RATP metro operator.

Meanwhile, one out of every five flights to and from Paris’ Orly airport is expected to be cancelled.

France has a decades-long history of attempts to reform its pension system

That worked in 1995 when millions came to the streets in the most disruptive social protests in the country since May 1968. Despite the protests, various further pension modifications have been implemented since.

According to the government’s plans, the legal retirement age would progressively climb from 62 to 64, while the number of years of payments required for a full pension will rise quicker than previously intended, reaching 43 years in 2027.

The change has still to be approved by parliament, where President Emmanuel Macron does not have an absolute majority but hopes to gain the support of the conservative Les Republicains party.

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