Protesters took to the streets one last time on Thursday to protest the government’s pension reform plans as the Constitutional Council will decide on Friday whether to declare parts or the entire widely opposed text as unconstitutional.

The imminent decision of the Constitutional Council hovered over this the twelfth designated day of national strikes over the proposed pension reform.

Across France, these were attended by 380,000 people, according to the Interior Ministry, and over 1 million, according to unions – smaller numbers than the 2 million unions said protested just last week. While some protested in Rennes, Nantes and Lyon, unions claimed that 400,000 people gathered in Paris, but this number was only 42,000, according to the police.

With the crucial decision on Friday, a large police force was deployed around the Constitutional Council’s buildings on Thursday, while rubbish bins blocked its access. Four people were arrested.

To avoid more gatherings around the Constitutional Council following its decision on Friday, the Interior Ministry issued a prefectural decree Thursday forbidding any protests before the building until Saturday morning.

The Constitutional Council, composed of nine members appointed by the president for a non-renewable nine-year term, could either declare parts or the entirety of the pension reform as being unconstitutional – something it has done in about half of its 744 decisions on constitutionality since 1958, according to AFP.

The institution “could make sure to come out on top” of this crisis by censoring the text completely,” left-wing MP Mathilde Panot (NUPES) told BFM.

If the court only decides to strike out some provisions, “the president must not promulgate the law, otherwise, he will no longer be able to govern the country”, she added.

At the same time, more than 252 deputies, mainly from the left-wing alliance NUPES, have also asked the Constitutional Council whether it will authorise a public referendum on the reform.

If the Constitutional Council accepts the referendum request, it would have to win the support of one-fifth of MPs and the backing of one-tenth of voters (5 million) before Macron’s pension law is implemented.

Following his trip to the Netherlands, Macron announced that he would receive unions after the Constitutional Council’s decision.

“I felt like saying ‘lol’”, Sophie Binet, the new head of the CGT union, said in response to Macron’s announcement, adding “that he will not be able to lead the country” even if the law was enacted.

The Constitutional Council’s decision is expected by the end of the day.

(Hugo Struna | EURACTIV.fr)