Posted Sep 29, 2022, 6:47 AMUpdated on Sep 29, 2022 at 7:26 am
After discussing a method for pension reform for days, weighing the pros and cons of this or that hypothesis, the majority leaders invited to the Elysee Palace on Wednesday evening around Emmanuel Macron and Elisabeth Borne saw a Head of State to return to the substance of the subject, according to a guest. “Before choosing which pipe we are going to take, it is better to know what we are going to put in it”, he summarizes.
To do this, the President of the Republic has instructed the Prime Minister to announce a consultation on the pension reform to be carried out by the Minister of Labour, Olivier Dussopt.
This Thursday morning, Elisabeth Borne announced to AFP that the government was going to launch a new round of consultation on pension reform in order to prepare a text “before the end of winter”. “We have chosen dialogue and consultation”, underlines the head of government, who asked Olivier Dussopt “to start negotiations next week” with employers’ organizations and trade unions, as well as with “parliamentary groups . »
Postponement of age
“He told us that we have to start from the bottom, and the bottom is the mandate that was given to him”, assures a participant, according to which the Head of State wishes that the “political and social consultation” , therefore with the political forces and the social partners – trade unions and employers -, be launched on the basis of his project, one of the main headings of which, recalled Emmanuel Macron, is the postponement of the legal age to 65 years in 2031. During his presidential campaign, Emmanuel Macron had admitted, the day after the first round, that this limit could move, to 64 years.
On the discussion table, Elisabeth Borne specified that the “long career system”, the taking into account of “those who have had difficult jobs”, “the prevention of wear and tear at work”, “subjects of end-of-career planning, and transition between employment and retirement”, “the employment of seniors and the fight against the discrimination of which seniors may be victims”, “special schemes”, “revaluation (to 1,100 euros, editor’s note) of the minimum pension for people who have had a full career” and, “in general, the adaptation of the parameters to ensure the financial balance of the system”.
The Prime Minister also recalled that there is the “gradual postponement of the retirement age by four months per year, culminating in 65 years in 2031”.
“Review before Christmas”
In short, the will to reform is strongly reaffirmed, but a little time is given to dialogue. What to satisfy, at least in the majority, to satisfy everyone, including the president of the Modem, Frenchman Bayrou.
The Prime Minister wishes to present “an assessment” of these discussions with the social partners and political forces “before Christmas”. “We favor the inclusion of this reform in a bill which should be voted on before the end of winter, for the entry into force of the reform in the summer of 2023”, she added.
“Emmanuel Macron has fairly clear ideas, he talked about pensions during the campaign, it cost him for the presidential and legislative elections, but the French gave him a mandate. He is not excited by the tool to do it, he just wants to engage it now, this reform. He was re-elected. There will be no third term. He is released from the constraint of re-election. He wants to move forward, ”analyzes a relative.
“This consultation will have the merit of pushing each other to position themselves precisely on the merits”, wants to believe a participant. And this one to ensure that if no one is ready to discuss, then the hypothesis of an amendment to the Social Security financing bill (PLFSS) remains an option.
Accident risks
The risks of an accident, that is to say of a motion of censure which would succeed, were also raised during the dinner. To which Emmanuel Macron clearly replied that there would then be immediate dissolution, assures a guest.
What put some pressure on all the troops. “The Socialists will have to go back to the voters by explaining why they made the Touraine reform ten years ago and are now opposing it. Same for the LRs, who vote each year in the Senate for an amendment not very far from what we want to do and defended a pension reform in the presidential election, continues the same. Emmanuel Macron believes that the French have sent a message to the legislative elections, it must be heard: everyone has a share of responsibility. »
