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Oh this is symptomatic of a larger problem of age discrimination in Europe. People have zero problem firing old people explicitly for their age. Many academic institutions have hard set requirements for retirement at 65. It's very very hard to work in to your 80s in Europe like it is in the US. (My experience more of less limited to academia)

The idea (originating from France as far as I can tell) is that if you fire all the old folks you will make more room for a younger generation. It's a theory that has been disprove again and again. It's also why they try to cut the work week. If everyone can only work 30 hours then there will be more jobs! (Except it never ends up happening)