The Prime Minister has unveiled the concessions that she is ready to meet the demands of the right, particularly on long careers.
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IPrime Minister Elisabeth Borne announced to the JDD that people who started working between the ages of 20 and 21 will be able to retire at the age of 63, which was the request of the LR deputies. “We are going to move by extending this long career system to those who started working between the ages of 20 and 21. They will thus be able to leave at the age of 63, in accordance with the rules provided for by the system, ”said the head of government. “We hear” the request of these right-wing elected officials, she added, before the kick-off on Monday of the debates before the National Assembly.
The voices of Republicans are essential to pass this reform. They have raised the stakes and have been pleading for several days to avoid that “those who started working the earliest (have to) contribute the longest”, according to party president Eric Ciotti. A green light to their proposal on long careers “will allow us to win a very large majority in the LR group”, he assured the Parisian. “It is a measure that will cost between 600 million and one billion euros per year, and which will concern up to 30,000 people per year”, underlines Élisabeth Borne. And “as we are carrying out this reform to ensure the balance of the system by 2030, we will have to find ways of financing”.
” It hurts “
Currently, starting a career before the age of 20 can allow an early retirement of two years, and entering the workforce before the age of 16 can give the right to an early retirement of four years. The reform project provides that this system will be “adapted”: those who started before the age of 20 will be able to leave two years earlier, i.e. 62 years old; those who started before 18 will be able to leave at 60, etc.
READ ALSOPension reform: Elisabeth Borne alone in the storm
To another request from the LRs, also made by the MoDem group, the Prime Minister has “no objection”: it would be a question of making “a mid-term progress report on the reform”, in 2027 That year, “there is a presidential election and legislative elections”, which “is already a form of review clause”, she notes.
While two new days of mobilization are planned, February 7 and 11, Elisabeth Borne says she understands that the reform pushing back the legal age of departure from 62 to 64 years “causes reactions, reluctance and concerns”. “But our objective is to ensure the future of our pay-as-you-go pension system,” she insists, saying “regrets (r) that some, especially on the left, maintain misunderstandings”. In response to the leader of the CFDT Laurent Berger, who accused her Thursday evening of lacking “empathy”, the tenant of Matignon affirms that “it is hurtful, and it is the opposite of who I am and of what I’m wearing.” And if the reform does not finally pass? “I don’t make that assumption. I am looking for the way,” explains Ms. Borne.