People close to Macron told AFP that the president “of course followed developments” on the ground.
In addition to raising the general retirement age, Macron’s reform also increases the number of years people must pay into the system to receive a full pension.
The government says its changes are necessary to avoid crippling deficits in coming decades due to the aging French population.
But opponents say the law places an unfair burden on low earners, women and people who do physical work, and polls have consistently shown majorities opposed to the changes.
A poll of 2,000 people published in the weekly Journal du Dimanche on Sunday gave Macron an approval rating of 28 percent, the lowest since 2019’s massive “yellow vest” demonstrations against a new fuel tax.
After Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne used Article 49.3 of the constitution to pass the law without a vote in the National Assembly’s lower house, opponents’ last hope to block the reform is to overthrow the government in one of the no-confidence motions of Monday.
Labor Minister Olivier Dussopt told the JDD that “it is not an admission of failure, but it is heartbreaking” to have used the nuclear option to push through the reform.
The pension changes were “too important to risk playing Russian roulette,” he added, after weeks of concessions to Republicans – long before raising the retirement age – failed to get enough conservative MPs on board to secure a majority.
Few lawmakers in the unruly Republican group are expected to vote against the government in Monday’s no-confidence motions tabled by a small group of centrist MPs and the far-right National Rally.
Ciotti said he didn’t want to “add chaos to chaos”.