More than six out of ten leaders of very small businesses (TPE) take a dim view of the government’s pension reform and are wary of its economic actions, in a context of high pessimism, according to a Fiducial-Ifop poll published Thursday.
Carried out among a thousand owners of companies with less than twenty employees, this survey was revealed at the end of an eleventh day of mobilization against the pension reform, the day after a meeting which turned short between the Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne and the inter-union.
This reform is not only contested in the street: 62% of VSE managers are not in favor of it, including 43% not at all, while 36% say they are in favor of it, including 10% who strongly support it.
These scores are particularly close to the measurement made on all French people in mid-March, underlines the Fiducial-Ifop survey (68% not in favor and 32% in favor).
They consider that the ideal average retirement age is 62.4 years, while the government has planned to raise it from 62 to 64 years, a measure that crystallizes anger.
The departure is hoped for even earlier in the more difficult sectors (a little over 61), but beyond 64 in the business services sector.
More broadly, two-thirds of respondents (66%) say they have no confidence in the economic measures announced or deployed by the government, compared to 34% who express their confidence.
A similar proportion of business leaders (66%) believe that their concerns are not taken into account, including 40% not at all.
Leaders also report their pessimism regarding the current political, economic and social context (76%, i.e. 29 points more since Emmanuel Macron came to power in May 2017) and their own activity (52%), in particular in health, trade or services to individuals.
However, 56% say they have no financial difficulties, in an inflationary environment marked by increases in relative costs, especially energy (72%), raw materials and supplies (69%) or salaries (16%).
Relaunched after five years of interruption, this quarterly survey was carried out by telephone, from February 27 to March 15, with a sample of 1,001 VSE managers, with margins of error ranging from 2.8 to 3.1% for most answers. It does not include companies with an annual turnover of less than 50,000 euros.