as not French I'm not very aware of his internal policies in France, but the news of that visit got to me. In my eyes it concerns EU and the world too

I think maybe because the rest of the world sees those changes he pushed through as incredibly mild

he increased the pension age because people are getting older and the state will not be able to afford it? wow what a crazy dictator

Other variables could have been adjusted (pensions, contributions...). Independent studies showed that our retirement system is very much affordable for our government and will still be 50 years from now. Just today it's also been revealed that the government's plan overestimated its savings by 4B euros...

Are you just repeating a common cliche while not knowing much about the situation?

So yes, unilaterally deciding to raise the retirement age, which doesn't actually fix anything, without having a vote, without listening to the protests, is neither mild nor democratic.

He used emergency powers to pass the law because he knew such law would hardly survive the regular legisative process. It might not be a Putin-style dictatorships but its definitively heading in the wrong direction.

And thats without mentionning the use of abuse of administration prohibitions towards anti-racist associations and environmental groups.

Probably did it because the EU needs this for political acceptance. It should have been made clear to people, that any form of social security system will need to be harmonized. I guess this was just the first step to increase pension age and in general it will always converge on the lowest common denominator for normal workers.

How would it ever pass normal legislative process? If I tell you that you have spend two more years working and there's no benefit for you at all, would you vote for it?

Through parliement. Thats just how a normal democracy works. Or through a referendum.

unless we are talking about handling a national crisis, or avoiding a US-style shutdown, then avoiding a vote may be legitimate under specific circumstances.

but I doubt pension reforms fall under national emergencies

I agree it should not fall under national emergencies, but I don't see any other way it would pass. Nobody wants to work longer for no gain. The pension system in a lot of countries is basically a ponzi scheme.