Armed police were deployed outside France's Constitutional Council on Friday ahead of its key ruling on whether the government's plans to lift the retirement age, which have spurred huge protests, are in line with constitutional rules.
President Emmanuel Macron says the French must work longer or else the pension budget will fall billions of euros into the red each year by the end of the decade. But the pension system is a cornerstone of France's cherished social protection model and trade unions say the money can be found elsewhere, including by taxing the rich more heavily.
Macron made a pension system overhaul a flagship reform of his second term in office. At stake for the president are not just financial gains but his reformist credentials.
Macron's opponents took the reform to the Constitutional Council on the grounds it was tacked onto a social security budget bill, which curtailed parliamentary debate, and was then forced through without a final vote in parliament.
Government insiders and constitutional experts expect the Council will say the government's actions were in line with the constitution and approve raising the legal retirement age by two years to 64, perhaps with some minor caveats.
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