$35.00 degrees on monday, it could still catch a shower around parts of the gulf. that includes for us here in doha, in those winds will be a concern as well. so, you know, if we do see these showers or thunderstorms, that's when those winds can really ramp up. so i would suspect wind gusts with thunderstorms up to about 65 kilometers per hour. but most of the day on monday should be quite pleasant. that's wrap, the susan ah, the tension in the occupied westbank is on the increase leading to a new wave of palestinian retaliatory action. you are one of the most wanted by israel al jazeera world investigates, 2 new groups, gaining public support, and meeting israeli forces had on a new phase of palestinian resistance on al jazeera,

a 1000000 people on the streets of france for weeks. now the french have been protesting against the president's plan to change the retirement age. but why is emmanuel the crown so determined at the opposition so intense? this is inside story. ah hello, welcome to the program. i'm adrian finnegan, changing frances state pension system to one that's more affordable to the state was a central plank of emanuel mcqueen's reelection campaign. it's now, however, become the central issue in french politics and opposition to his presidency. strikes and protests intensified this week. some turning violent with hundreds, arrested across the country. transport and other public services have been hit with mounds of uncollected rubbish on the streets of paris ensuring

a constant and unpleasant reminder of the dispute. the plan includes a proposal to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64, a crown use his executive powers to push through the changes because he couldn't get enough support in parliament. this is increased the opposition that he faces, but also it seems a cons. resolve to force through the measure. he condemned this week's violence but doesn't appear to be budging on the issue. less of you loss good at this thing. the benefits in the face of violence which i distinguish from the protests, continue to be extremely firm then on that topic. i condemned to violence. we saw the b, i remind era one of the responsibilities of an irish sure to law enforcement forces . like who did an exemplary work with my full support as everything else, we continued to move forward. the country deserves that and needs it. who will give no ground to wildlands?

none in a democracy, there isn't the right to be violent and expect our law inforcement. introspect, the rules completed the wanted with the transparency in investigations of but i don't put that on the same footing as what's happening and so cycling will give no ground to ireland. i condemn it with the utmost clarity or after the violence in paris. the city's mer said, the situation was, quote, explosive and very chaotic, everywhere and quote. and had i'll go once dialogue and from a chrome to drop his plans. and nothing happened to me. if we want to calm the country, there are many options to get out of it. dialogue must be re established and dialogue can not be re established by ignoring an explosive and very chaotic situation everywhere. so there you have it. i'm campaigning for the withdrawal of this law. all opinion polls suggest the changes are widely unpopular, but let's hear what people on the streets of paris have to say, really, to city

a deal. i condemn all of this damage. yes, there claim to completely legitimate. we can agree or disagree, but it is legitimate. it's just that the rules must be respected. 2 letters, this rule up. i'm lucky enough to be working a disc job in an office, but i see work as carrying heavy loads and things like that. so i can understand they're being told they will live 5 or 6 years in good health after they retire. well, now we're taking back 2 of those years. it's something violent coming from the government . well, everyone in paris appears to be caught up in the spirit, even the many tourists to visit the city about demonstrating to the government what they've done is, and the fact that the president has taken that decision with no backing from his own party. all the people is insane to me. the money does need to come from somewhere to pay for the pension so that people can retire, but the solution isn't to tie power into the hands of $1.00 person with no voice for the people is crazy. i think if you always worked with the idea that you're

gonna go on a pension at a certain age and then it changes it for a difficult to accept because i think we need changes. we are getting older and more so one has to pay for their friendship. so i think i, i understand government, there's a lot of passion. ah, definitely by the french people. it's a difficult situation on both sides, financially. the struggle of maintaining the, the retirement age and, and also maintaining enough and a funds. so at some compromise, i think needed, but yeah, difficult situation all around will in a moment will be discussing president crohn's pension reform plans with our guests . but 1st, let's take a closer look at what he actually wants to do. the reform he says is to provide for the future and ease the financial burden on the state. he's asking people to work for 2 more years to make the system more sustainable in the long term. at the moment, french men retire at 62. that's 2 years earlier than the

e. u. average of 64 french women retire at 61. forecast say that they'll be fewer people around to pay taxes to fund francis state pensions in the year 2000. there were $2.00 workers for each retiree, but by 2070 that's expected fall to just $1.00 workers for each retiree. ah, so let's bring it on. guests from copenhagen were joined by actual person union representative for railway workers of general confederation of labor from paris. laura malo, the paris correspondent of the irish times and from san rami. the performance is paul taylor contributing editor of politico and senior fellow at the friends of europe. think tank a warm welcome to you will laura, i'm going to start with you mccomb claims that the way his prime minister rammed this legislation through without going to a vote was perfectly democratic. how can that be? how does it work?

i'm an aquatic my i. i, it's not democratic because it's a very, very important societal issue and it should have been voted on. and i have spoken to many, many people who said that they supported my call up to that point. but then you cannot ram legislation like this through a national assembly without a vote. now, his rationale and the rationale also used by the prime minister, is that the, what they call it 49.3. that's the article of the constitution, the mechanism that was used to pass it without a vote that led to to know confidence motions which were both defeated on monday, last monday, the 20th of march. and when a no confidence motion fails, then the legislation then does become law. so he saying basically we followed the constitutional rules. the mechanisms. therefore it is democratic. ok,

but technically is, but it does, it, does that, laura make it legitimate? was, was that, was that the next question? well, so they, for 3 quarters of the french people, it is not legitimate. i'm not home on, on television 2 days later. and he made these arguments and he also said that, you know, people are living longer. there actually were people supporting the pension system . this isn't a necessity. he said he was totally thompson's. and that made it even worse. the 2 big turning points in this whole crisis were the 16th of march, when they rounded through without a vote. and she's the parents on television, on wednesday, when he shows no understanding whatsoever of the anger in the streets against him. bolt, i saw you smiling riley when, when i asked, but this were whether this was,

was, was democratic what, what's your take on this? well yeah, i agree with a lot a lot of what laura said about the fact that it would have been better to have alimentary. both fact is that for tactical reasons, some of the groups which in parliament, which actually support for a later retirement age, including the guy who pose the, the confidence motion that got the most the most support are actually in favor of, of later retirement. but for tactical reasons, they wants to embarrass mackerel, or else they were scared of going against their own voters by, by voting with him. and so in the end, he wasn't sure he'd have a majority. but i think the legitimacy argument, you have to say, michael actually campaigned and was re elected as president on a promise to raise the retirement age to 65. he then said, or i, i hear that that's unpopular. i'll raise it to 64 and not immediately, but in

a staged process. and, you know, there were 100 more than 100 hours of debate in parliament about this. the opposition adopted blocking tactics. nobody's questioning. was it legitimate for the, for the left brain opposition to put down something like $15000.00 amendments? you know, many of which were trivial and clearly designed only as an obstruction using every trick in the parliamentary book. to prevent this ever coming to a vote, they didn't want it to come to a vote. now they demanding that it, that it should come to a vote and saying it was illegitimate because it didn't come to them, but they were the ones with all their obstruction tactics in parliament who made that impossible. so i think on the other, the thing is that on the fundamentals of the, if you look around europe, you know, there are countries such as the you k, which have retirement. now at 67, they're getting there. gradually. germany is 67 going to 69 in sweden,

which many people look at as a social demo, classic model for, ah, europe, there, it's 69 and thinking of going to 70. so let's not forget that this is happening everywhere and it's happening. it's an inexorable fact that when the socialists cut the retirement age to 60 way back in 90 in the, in the early 19 eighties, president meet their off was the, the president who did it. at that time they were for workers for every person retiring. and the average life expectancy was 74. today, the average life expectancy in france is 83. so we've gained 9 years and you know, raising the retirement age is never popular. the difference is that in other european countries, people understand or the economic rationale during the demographic rationale for doing it in france,

they prefer posturing protests to the realities of people in france actually already retire older than 62. and because of the number of contribution years they need in order to reach a full pension, also the, the, the current average retirement age i think is about 62 and a half and it's going up. so it's the difference between the reality of life and the symbolism excell. let's, let's put that to you. what do you make of what paul was saying? the french don't do so badly in terms of pensions compared to the european neighbors in the, the u. k. as for was saying, island, switzerland to well, you know, and that's an argument we here, pretty much all issues. but right now i'm visiting our comrades in the denmark to raise money for funding psalms. and they're telling us about the same thing about every time the employers or the government attack our social rights. they pretend

that it's because you are talking. it is the only country where it's still exist and we must. busy of self with the other baber that has was right. which conditions and we don't really care about. i don't really care about the argument that this was elsewhere. i mean that's what we are saying here in france. i mean the work is what organized. we're going to struggle against my employers on this issues is that there is no economical justification for this, for this violent attack on our pensions. okay, so what if we live longer than before in, in our why should we be giving the years we are gaining over best? why should you be getting into an employer? why should be giving it to the state? we want those here that we haven't have managed gains over desk. we want them to have the key time for kids, for a blanket or a ledger of after after a hard time neighbor, it's a simple as that and there is no economic justification for the attack because the government is saying that eventually in 10 to 15 years now your projected deficits

of the pension system that would go down to perhaps 10000000 or 20 billions a year in the worst case scenario. but you can take a minute and look at these numbers 10 to 20 billions a year is less and i mean, nest than the profits made some time by single corporation that was ample as a corporation and francis a company called c m s c j m. which is a shipping company that this year rates the $36000000000.00 annual in profit. it mean that a single company in france, a single one, not all the $10000.00 single one, can pay the entire deficit for the $25.00 millions of workers and still have 16 billions of profit left for their own shareholders and owners. so there is money to fund or so services or pensions, i wage is better, public services is just that our enemies are emptying our pockets to feel theirs. so we are fighting to not be robbed basically. so that's why people are pissed off and considering the fact that the government has no majority in public opinion, no majority in its own parliament and its own parliament,

its own institution. and it doesn't even have any support at all. so that's what you're fighting and what use except any digital from the government. i will continue to fight by all means necessary. i appreciate that. the passionate feeling is, is running red hot right now, but we gotta be careful with, with the language of the tv and for that right back to pull, then there is the money to pay for this. you've just got a tax. corporations a little more on the rich. yeah, well, you know, there isn't any issue in france where the answer of the trade unions of the left is not to say you have to tax the rich more. france actually already has the highest tax burden of any country in europe, except the one with the axle has to be visiting today. denmark, we're right up there with denmark already. how much higher can we go without a killing? the goose that lays the golden age france has a generous welfare system compared to all of its neighbors. and rightly so,

this is a country that still has very good public health provision. it's a country that has a public education system where you might want to send your children, unlike some other countries. and these are things which cost money and the french taxpayer, including corporations pay for them. you can light on one company which had a windfall profit. this year, either a shipping company because of the freight charges or an energy company because of the price spike in, in oil, and then say steel, take the money from them. let's have a, a sudden tax on them. but ultimately, the french economy will, will collapse under the burden of evermore taxation at some point. and macro is that is the president who said, i'm not going to raise taxes anymore. he's more or less held to that. and you can't go on living on public borrowing indefinitely either as francis discovering because

now that interest rates are going up. that means the government has to pay more and more in interest every year on its budget. and now having to pay more and interest that it pays for example, for education. so if i was concerned about education and about the other social benefits, i would say, let's get more people back into work. let's grow the economy and let's keep the tax burden. where it is all trying, bring it down somewhat so that her france can her manage with a smaller deficit. more people are obviously very angry. as we said, feelings are running pretty high at the moment. asthma crohn messed this up and he said his, his only regret is that, that he hasn't managed to convince the french people of the necessity to do this. oh yes, the government who handle the communications very poorly. indeed. for me, the most shocking thing was back in january,

the government said that everyone in france would receive a minimum pension of $1200.00 euro a month. and when you consider that some of the lease paid are only getting $78900.00 a month, that was quite an improvement except, but then it turned out when you read the fine trends, it's not everyone in the country, it's a few tens of thousands of people more, they never really get a clear explanation for why that they made that mistake. ah, they also said it was good for women and it's not good for women. as you said, women retire on an average is 61, and now they're going to be forced to work to 64 and not getting the same credit that they got before for, for having career breaks, should have children and all of the experts i've talked to say that the burden of this reform is really on the lower paid members of society and not the white collar workers and the upper at all. and we've seen this over and over

with my quote here. that's why it has a reputation for being the president of the rich. he's never been forgiven by the public for having been a merchant banker at ross bank. and he really defends the interest of big business and he believes in a way, maybe he's right in some ways because investments in france is much higher than it was when he came to office for direct investment is i believe the highest in europe was before these riots anyway, but now he's handled it very badly, in fact his performance on wednesday, 76 percent of people who are pulled by and if you go said that they were just not convinced and 78 on times him arrogance. ah. so then there is also, in addition to the issue of being forced to retire 2 years later as an also

a personality question a couch, a question that many, many friends people just do not like a manual, not kong, but i shouldn't say to be fat. and this is classic for france, the french elect, a providential man, a savior. and then within months that they hate him and want to chop his head off so that they're all sorts of traditions at work in his. okay, we'll explore that little more in a moment. but 1st, i want to go back to actual micron, says the law must enter into force by the end of this year. war of the protest move of we saw the piles of rubbish on the streets of paris that the metro public transport is, is running intermittently. and do you think it will come into force by the end of the or are you convinced that the, that the protests can force him to back down? i'm convinced under the ongoing protest and strikes can force them to back down the

workers and use continue to mobilize, expand the items to find the mobilize ation. because the government is going to have a serious problem and they already already identified it is because the whole narrative of the government has been to say that this government has the rums we taught themselves. now you have to accept it and the claim to oppose against the so called legitimacy of the government. again, just to make up the st. francis saying, but it doesn't work because there's they even, according to police standards, not only paid union numbers, even according to police numbers, for example, in paris with the highest turn off of the demonstrations, the beginning of the demonstrators in january. and we'll call them for another general day of action on the next 2 states. and we will continue to do so. and what has been interesting now is that there are some error, some sectors of the garbage disposal workers love in us, right. and who have now been to some extent horseback to work because the government has an issue to decrease that force back some workers to work site and sort of terry issues and threatening basically workers was prison and find it. they

don't tend to work. but as a reaction to that have been strikes, organizing other sectors. and what i really saw last thursday was that the many school high school students and university students turned out and much higher numbers than the previous demonstrations. which indicates that there are new forces during the battle and which will cause a serious sweat to the government. will we win? i hope we will win and i know we can win because all the conditions for victory are now being gathered. but it also will depend on the result and the determination of the morality of those fighting men. we will do everything in our power to keep the spirit up. but that's also why we're having massive fundraising for strike funds even international yesterday. and we hope we will bring in a few who are for all our friends in france and comments to make sure they can last as long as possible in order to win. and when i say when it means that the government has to retreat and back down and scratch this law, and then that never see the day of late for you've been traveling around france this week. but what, what is the mood? what do you make of the protest movement?

does it have the potential do you think to grow, to become a more violent and explosive and, and will it be enough to force the president the back down? well, i think i think those 2 things are separate. now will it, will it grow? it does have a potential to go to, to grow. yes. will it become more violent if it becomes more violent? it won't grow. and that's one of the problems. is that so far? until last, until this week, really, the trade unions have been very disciplined that would be very good at keeping the peace that the protest peaceful. and therefore, they've had strong public support for the, the more it turns violent, the more you know, the, the sort of anarchist fractions get involved in it, which we've seen in the, in the last few days. i think the more likely that it will lose popularity. and the fewer people may turn out, but i think the, the, you know, there, if you look at,

you look at these things historically, these, these movements do blow up with rare exceptions. in the end, the government prevails. the, the rule of law prevails over the rule of the street. however, the b one, a 2 exceptions president, chirac and his prime minister, dominique deville were forced to back down in 2006. they introduced a special work contract for 1st time workers for young people, which gave them a job protection, but at a lower salary. and that a protest movement against that lead the government to withdraw it even after it has become law and decide never to implement it. i don't think that will happen this time because i think actually a lot of the people, including a lot of people who voted against it or protested against it, know that this law is necessary. increasing the amount of time people need to work for pension is necessary just as it's been necessary everywhere in europe. and so i

think that where we get to the easter school days and then may with all of the public holiday days and so on. i this movement will eventually blow out. that said, i think it will lead fronts very in bit. i agree with a lot of what law laura said about michael's personal unpopularity. the heresies made not only in communication but in not showing empathy with, with people. i think he needs to weigh now to try to engage with the unions on things to do with the quality of life to do with working conditions to do with dope or elderly people are still at work. i'm sorry to interrupt you for what time is rapidly running out here. i mean, i just want to throw that to, to laura, and picking up on what he was saying a few minutes ago in the financial times. the sweet journalist simon cooper said

french anger transcends pensions and microns high handedness, his personal unpopularity that we were talking about. and that there's a generalized long term rage against the state in france and it's embodiment the president. is he right? oh yes, absolutely. ah, and it's as if the french were condemned to forever replay for $1789.00 the nation. i've seen it. i've been a correspondent in france for decades, and i have covered countless demonstrations. i always remember a lawyer i met in a lease a students march or at least 10 or 15 years ago. i said, well, i'm a parent, are you a teacher? she said no. and i said, what are you doing here? and she said, just a manifest day, i love to demonstrate. and there is that article you mentioned the f t also talked about the glamorous tradition of revolt since 1789. and there is something sort of

trendy unglamorous and i think people enjoy there's a sort of theatrical elements to, to all of it, to the, the, the rubbish bins on the fire and the fire and the smoke and the grenades. and even, even the way the police line are facing the demonstrators and then make charges. huh. you know, with that, holding out their shields and with their helmets and their battles and everything was if they would just sort of mingle with the demonstrators just sort of gently, you know, keep an eye on things. i think it would be different. but there is this confrontation, which is, seems to be written into the dna, a france. ah, so will they ever change? i doubt it. i mean, going back from one moment to how with this and there have been 3 appeals to the constitutional counsel. and my court has said he will talk to the labor unions. again, one of the constitutional council takes its decision. ok if the constitutional

counsel finds that this law is unconstitutional, that basically would end the crisis. if on the other hand, they will validate it and it becomes a law. and then the question is, will the demonstrations go on and on on? i agree with paul, they'll probably die down in the summer. ok. so what we saw at the end of this year is that they started up again, traumas for well over a year. yeah. i'm sorry, laura to interrupt you. we've, we've, we've run out of time and i'm sorry, actual i wanted to come back to you as well, but um, unfortunately, the way the news waits for, no man that's, that's coming up next to al jazeera. many thanks to you all for being part of our discussion today. and thank you for watching. so if you get, you can see the program again at any time by visiting our website, which is at al jazeera dot com for further discussion. join us on our facebook page at facebook dot com, forward slash ha inside story. and of course you could join the conversation on twitter handle at ha, inside story from me, adrian finnegan and the team here. and so how,

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