Elisabeth Borne says she is open to “a mid-term review of the reform”in 2027. LUDOVIC MARIN / AFP
The Prime Minister meets a request from elected Republicans, whose support is essential to have the pension reform adopted.
Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne announced to the JDD that people who started working between the ages of 20 and 21 will be able to retire at 63, not 64, thus responding favorably to the request of LR deputies.
On the highly contested pension reform, “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 be able to leave at 63“said the head of government. “We hear“The request of 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 prevent “those who started working the earliest (must) contribute the longest“, according to the president of the party Éric 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.
“Adapted” device
“It is a measure that will cost between 600 million and one billion euros per year, and which will affect up to 30,000 people per year.», emphasizes Elisabeth 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“.
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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.
At another request from the LRs, also brought by the MoDem group, the Prime Minister did not “no objection“: it would be a question of doing “a mid-term review of the reform“, in 2027. That year, “there is a presidential election and legislative elections“, what “is already a form of review clause“, she notes.
Lack of “empathy”
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 “arouses reactions, reluctance and concerns“. “But our goal is to ensure the future of our pay-as-you-go pension system“, she hammers, saying “regret(s) that some, especially on the left, maintain misunderstandings“.
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In response to CFDT leader Laurent Berger, who accused her Thursday evening of lacking “empathy“, the tenant of Matignon affirms that”It’s hurtful, and it’s the opposite of who I am and what I wear“. And if the reform does not finally pass? “I do not place myself in this hypothesis. I’m looking for the way“, explains Elisabeth Borne.