French PM looks to soothe pensions fury as Macron stays firm

Divergence is rare between Macron and Borne, a career technocrat who regularly denies having further political ambitions.

"We have to give people a rest. The country needs cooling off," Borne told media including daily Le Monde.

After a meeting with worker representatives broke up without any progress Wednesday, she added that "the unions must not emerge humiliated" from the pensions battle.

"It's better to have calming words than stigmatising words," Laurent Berger, head of France's largest union the CFDT, told broadcaster BFM on Friday morning.

Nevertheless, "if things are to be completely calmed down, this reform must be set aside" in line with demands from the united front of unions, he added.

In comments from Macron's multi-day state visit to China this week, a source in the president's entourage had insisted the pension reform plan was democratically approved.

Opponents of the law were infuriated when the government last month used a constitutional provision to ram their changes through France's hung parliament without a vote.

"If people wanted to retire at 60, they shouldn't have elected Emmanuel Macron president," the entourage source said.

The source also attacked the historically moderate CFDT directly, complaining that the union had not been open to compromise on pension reform.

By contrast, Borne had managed "something other than pouring oil on the fire," union chief Berger said, saying that "there's never been a problem of respect" between him and the prime minister.

Looking ahead, Borne said Friday that "it's important for us to say what direction we're heading in before looking for allies to vote laws through".

Her comments were an apparent break from the mission Macron had given her to find support for the government programme in the fractured lower house.

Borne quickly moved to close the gap, saying on a visit to southern France Friday that she had the "same objectives" as Macron.

"I think we share the same analysis: the country needs cooling off," she said. "We're perfectly aligned on that question".

In a rare and swift retort from a foreign trip, a person close to Macron, who asked not to be named, had said that "the president set the direction in his TV interview" two weeks ago.

In that appearance, he tried to shift debate onto new priorities such as reducing unemployment, health, education and the environment.

The pensions reform is currently being examined by France's Constitutional Council, which will rule on whether the law is permissible on April 14.