French presidential hopeful Philippe proposes pushing retirement age to 65

PARIS — French presidential candidate Edouard Philippe pitched gradually raising the country’s legal age of retirement from 64 to 65 for most workers in his much-anticipated pensions reform plan unveiled on Tuesday. Philippe, a center-right former prime minister whose campaign has yet to gain traction against his populist rivals, said in a nearly 20-minute video that reforming the country’s generous pension system was imperative given France’s increasingly dire fiscal outlook. “We need to take the right decisions before the [financial] crisis that is set to hit us,” he said. “All European countries, whether governed by the right or the left, Germany, Spain... have implemented this. We are the only ones who haven’t.