The thronging marches drawing more than a million protesters fizzled out more than two years ago. The black-clad youth stopped lighting piles of garbage on fire in “wild protests.” There have been some countrywide union strikes, but none have focused solely on the issue.
So it might have seemed that the fight in France over raising the retirement age slowly, to 64 from 62, was settled. But that was not the case.
Instead, it continued to fester and remained a seemingly quixotic rallying call for left-wing parties and the country’s labor unions, who faced the unbending resolve of President Emmanuel Macron of France.
Until this past week when, after prolonged political turbulence, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu stunned the country by offering to pause the change until after the next presidential election, in 2027.
The remarkable retreat was a major concession by Mr. Macron, known for his imperial top-down, all-controlling way of governing. And it threatened to roll back what many consider to be the only major accomplishment of his second term.
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