The Last Hurdle: Top court in France set to decide legality of controversial pension reform

Paris: Following months of violent protests, France’s top constitutional court is set to give out a ruling on the legality of Emmanuel Macron’s heavily contested pension reform. The pension overhaul, if passed, will raise the legal retirement age to 64 from 62. French President Macron has been facing domestic backlash over his flagship reforms. Some demonstrations have turned violent since Macron’s government forced the bill through parliament last month without a vote, using an executive power that is legal but has sparked accusations of undemocratic behaviour from opponents. The court’s approval will act as the final green light Macron needs to change the bill into law and ensure it is implemented by the end of the year. On Thursday, as many as 380,000 people took to the streets to protest against the pension reforms. The interior ministry, however, said that this was far fewer than the nearly 1.3 million demonstrated at the height of the protests in March. The Paris Police has deployed security around the Constitutional Council until Saturday morning and has also banned any form of demonstration in the vicinity. The nine-member council will first decide whether the pensions overhaul is in line with the French Constitution or not. Experts think the most likely scenario is that it will partially approve the bill. A partial approval means that some parts of the bill may be scrapped but it will probably throw its weight behind its core elements, including pushing back the minimum legal age for retirement. The next step would be to go through the two separate requests from the left-wing opposition party to launch a possible referendum on an alternative law to limit the retirement age to 62. It is not yet clear whether it will give its go-ahead, but the path toward any actual referendum would be very long. For any vote, the opposition would need to collect some 4.8 million signatures from members of the electorate backing their proposal within nine months. And a referendum would take place only if both chambers of parliament refused to examine the bill in the next six months – something regarded as unlikely. With inputs from agencies Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.