Opponents of the pension reform mobilized at the call of the Force Ouvrière (FO) union, in Rennes, on January 10, 2023 (AFP / Damien MEYER)
It will be 64 years old by 2030: Elisabeth Borne presented on Tuesday the pension reform, a flagship commitment of re-elected President Emmanuel Macron, confirming a postponement of the legal retirement age which augurs strong opposition in the street and in Parliament .
The Prime Minister confirmed during a press conference the arbitration which had been widely leaked for several days, after a sequence of several months combining consultations, procrastination and surprise postponement of the announcement in December.
“I am well aware that changing our pension system raises questions and fears among the French. We want to answer them, and convince” and above all “guarantee the balance of the system in 2030”, declared Élisabeth Borne while the left-wing parties, the National Rally and all the trade unions are opposed to a postponement of the retirement age.
Pensions: the contribution period increased over the reforms (AFP / Sylvie HUSSON)
But the postponement of the legal age to 65, Emmanuel Macron’s initial commitment, was “never an end in itself”, she insisted, presenting the reform adopted as the fruit of numerous consultations with the unions and political parties, foremost among them Les Républicains, whose approval the government is hoping for.
From September 1, the legal age of departure will therefore be “gradually raised by three months per year to reach 64 years old in 2030. We will therefore be at 63 years and 3 months at the end of the five-year term” in 2027, detailed Ms. Thick headed.
“We will not go further than the 43 years of contributions provided for by the Touraine reform to leave with a full pension. But we will reach this target faster, moving to a rate of one quarter per year”, has she elaborated. It will therefore be necessary to have contributed for 43 years from 2027 instead of 2035 for a full pension.
Pensions: the contribution period according to age (AFP / Sylvie HUSSON)
Another flagship measure on which the government is counting to have the reform accepted: the increase to 85% of the net minimum wage, or 1,200 euros gross currently, of the minimum pension for full careers, a measure extended to current retirees. “Nearly two million small pensions will be increased,” said Elisabeth Borne.
The reform also includes a device “adapted” for long careers, “so that no one who started” to work early is forced to work more than 44 years, according to the government.
It “will record the extinction of the main remaining special schemes”, namely “new recruits at the RATP, in the electrical and gas industries branch and at the Banque de France” will in particular be affiliated to the general pension scheme, a explained Ms. Borne.
In addition, the government wants to create a “senior index” that companies with more than 50 employees will have to publish. A measure that arouses the hostility of employers.
At the political level, Elisabeth Borne will provide after-sales service on Tuesday evening on France 2. And the government should include its reform in a draft amending budget for Social Security presented to the Council of Ministers on January 23, before examination in stride at the Parliament.
“We are ready to further develop our project, and this will be possible thanks to a loyal and constructive parliamentary debate,” said the Prime Minister.
At the social level, the continuation is hardly in doubt: gathered at the end of the afternoon at the Bourse du travail in Paris, the leaders of the eight major unions (CFDT, CGT, FO, CFE-CGC, CFTC, Unsa, Solidaires , FSU) are expected to call for a first day of protests and strikes on January 19 or 24.
“If Emmanuel Macron wants to make it his mother of reforms (…), for us it will be the mother of battles”, summarizes Frédéric Souillot, boss of Force Ouvrière.
Demonstration for the defense of the pension system, in Paris, February 6, 2020 (AFP/Archives/Thomas SAMSON)
“Even with positive measures on long careers or hardship”, “there will be no deal with the CFDT”, for his part warned the secretary general of the reformist union, Laurent Berger, whose executive has a time hoped for support.
The government is “right to be afraid”, commented the leader of the Insoumis deputies, Mathilde Panot, whose party is associated with a “march for pensions” on January 21.
According to the latest polls, a large majority of French people are opposed to raising the legal age.
In Lille, Olivier Rohas, 41, project manager in sustainable development, fears that an age measure “really damages our quality of life”, even if he “understands” the need to “finance our pensions”.
If he predicts “a major movement” of the unions, the Renaissance deputy Marc Ferracci, close to Emmanuel Macron, on the other hand displays the determination of power: “We have to show that we will go all the way” .
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© 2023 AFP
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