Paris’s public transport sector braces for unrest on Thursday as the union plans to go on strike to protest President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to raise the retirement age at a time when soaring inflation is making headlines.

Bus and tram lines, as well as the heavily trafficked regional RER B network in Ile de France, will be hardest hit, while metro and other commuter lines are expected to remain “normal”. independent transport authority governing the sector.

The General Confederation of Trade Unions, which organized the movement, called on the government to “raise wages, not the retirement age.”

Macron promised during his election campaign to make efforts regarding pensions.

He felt that the current system is not sustainable because people are living longer, stressing that the retirement age should be raised from 62 to 64 or 65 years.

But Macron lost his majority in parliament in the June elections, and his allies fear a mobilization of voters to come back and move forward on the controversial amendment, which previously held strikes to protest it before being abandoned due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

Macron hopes to approve an increase in the retirement age during a parliamentary debate on the social security financing project starting next week.