Charles de Gaulle terminal blocked amid French pension protests
Al JazeeraNov 18, 2022
The Facts
As protests over pension reforms continued to grip French cities, demonstrators forced their way into the building of US investment giant BlackRock in Paris on Thursday.
Videos shared on social media showed protesters entering the lobby of the historic Centorial building, proceeding to chant slogans while waving red flares and setting off smoke bombs. They did not reach the company's offices on the third floor and reportedly vacated after about 10 minutes.
The Spin
Right narrative
French citizens have to embrace pension reforms. With longer life expectancies and an aging population, the cost to the state's coffers has become unsustainable. France needs to get with the times and raise the pension age like all other European countries have done.
Left narrative
Despite those that say the numbers are unsustainable, the deficit for future years is not as dramatic as Macron and his supporters make it out to be. Besides, there are other ways of raising the necessary money outside of raising the pension age — including reversing the tax cuts for businesses that Macron's government itself has implemented.
