• In France, the pension reform, including the postponement of the legal retirement age to 64, was promulgated.
  • Seen from Belgium, the demonstrations against this reform go rather badly as "20 Minutes" was able to observe.
  • In our neighbours, the legal age of departure is already set at 65 and should gradually increase to 67 years by 2030.

The pension reform was finally enacted in France, including its most controversial article raising the legal retirement age to 64. A text that brought millions of people out into the streets for a social movement of a scale unmatched since the Yellow Vests. While the demonstrations have subsided since the Constitutional Council's decision to approve the reform, unions and opposition parties are calling for a massive mobilization on May 1. Meanwhile, across the border in Belgium, our neighbours are grinding their teeth. Because for them, the bill is even more salty with a retirement age postponed to 67 years by 2030.

It was in the border town of Mouscron that we went to ask our Belgian neighbours how they felt about the French social movement against the pension reform. "Oh la la la la, if you want to throw me on this, you're not ready," says Catherine, a 66-year-old retiree. "With us, it's 67 years, and you complain for 64 years," she says indignantly. "We have to work and teach young people to take over, except that it does not happen overnight," says the sexagenarian.

"Ah, they can growl if they want"

"Ah, they can grumble if they want, but times have changed, people are living longer and if it continues like this, in 25 years, no one will have a pension in France," says another retiree, a former pharmacist, who prefers not to tell us his name. He started working in 1969 and finished his career in 2014, "and the last few years it's like I'm 20," he says. "It's abused," adds Jean-Marie, a shopkeeper. There is a plethora of reactions like that, including among politicians. "As we live longer, you don't have to have done the ENA to understand that you will have to work harder," admits Paul-Olivier Delannois, the mayor of Tournai, another Belgian city on the border. And besides, according to him, there is a demand in this sense: "I have a lot of municipal agents who want to work beyond the legal age," says the elected official.


The unanimous argument for looking with a bad eye on the French protest is therefore that the grass is still a little greener here. "I propose to go and demonstrate in France in favor of retirement at 64 in Belgium," says Benoît on Facebook. Because in our neighbors, the postponement of the retirement age to 67 years in 2030 has passed cream, and this is what ulcerates the main stakeholders. "They are right to fight for their rights," says Yasmine, 16, for whom leaving at 67 "is a lot." But she did not protest when it was decided: "If I had known, I would probably have taken to the streets too," laments the teenager. "In Belgium it's 65 or 67 years old and we don't say anything to look for the mistake," fumes Marc. "Future reforms talk about raising retirement to 66 and then to 67 in our country. No strike! We are happy! " adds Alessandro.

In fact, none of the interviewees were able to tell us when the reform was passed in Belgium. "We have no choice, and it has not generated any dispute without me being able to explain why," wonders Jean-Marie, the shopkeeper of Mouscron. A mystery that is probably explained by the fact that this decision is not new. Indeed, as early as 2013, this hypothesis had been evoked, and taken up by the federal government formed after the 2014 elections. And those who remember it were fiercely opposed to it for some. At the time, the Belgian union FGTB denounced a "measure [which] makes no sense since healthy life expectancy in Belgium is currently 64 years on average", while demanding a return "to the legal pension age of 65 years". "At home, it has not made so many waves, but for the French, I think this reform is the straw that broke the camel's back," said the mayor of Tournai.

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