The French government adopts its pension reform
Emmanuel Macron and his ministers showed their determination on Monday, despite an initial massive mobilization of opponents.
A first day of strike and demonstrations brought together Thursday between one and two million people in the street. The next one is scheduled for January 31.
AFP
The government adopted Monday in the Council of Ministers its pension reform showing its “determination” to go to the end without “giving up” the postponement of the retirement age to 64, despite a massive mobilization that opponents intend to further amplify .
“Returning” to the controversial “age measures” would “be renouncing the return to balance” of the system in 2030, “and therefore lacking responsibility for future generations”, declared the Minister of Labor Olivier Dussopt in front of the press at the Élysée, while acknowledging “a disagreement with the trade unions” on this subject.
“The President of the Republic has said his determination and his determination is identical to that of the government,” he continued.
After the first day of strikes and demonstrations, which brought together Thursday between one and two million people in the street, and before the next one scheduled for January 31, Emmanuel Macron and his executive are working to put a “normal” mobilization into perspective.
They therefore took advantage of the very formal stage of the Council of Ministers to unroll their calendar, which provides for a parliamentary debate at a run for the entry into force of the contested project in the summer.
The postponement of the legal retirement age from 62 to 64, the flagship measure of the reform, was unanimously rejected by the unions, as well as by most of the opposition and, according to the polls, a large majority of French.
Ready for “dialogue”
The Head of State estimated on Sunday that he had already shown “openness” in relation to the program for his second five-year term which initially provided for the 65th birthday. He said he wished “that the government with the parliamentarians” could still “adjust” the text. Before being more inflexible: “the needs” are “known”, and “I believe that there, now, we must be able to move forward”.
Its ministers therefore take turns to ensure that they are ready for “dialogue” in order to “enrich” the text… but only on the margins.
“Each time an amendment will allow us to improve the text without giving up the return to balance in 2030, nor the fundamentals of the reform, obviously we will be open to it”, Olivier Dussopt simply said on Monday during a long, very technical presentation, without advancing any leads in this direction.
While the Minister of Public Accounts, Gabriel Attal, had opened the door for the first time during the weekend to “coercive measures for companies which would not play the game” of employment for seniors, Olivier Dussopt is bound to financial penalties only for companies that do not publish the incentive “index” provided for by the reform.
The executive is even less willing on another point which is tense even in the ranks of the Les Républicains party, yet the only announced ally of the executive in the National Assembly: the fact that people who started working at the age of 20 will have to contribute 44 years, and not 43 like the others, to obtain a pension at full rate.
As for the proposal by MoDem deputies to increase the working week by half an hour, to 35.5 hours, to free up resources, “it is not the government’s objective to open a debate on the working time”, swept Olivier Dussopt.
Announced resistance
Nothing therefore for the moment likely to satisfy the opponents of the reform, who tirelessly demand the outright withdrawal of “age measures” and promise firm resistance in the National Assembly and in the streets.
“We hope to do even stronger on 31 (January)”, warned the secretary general of the CGT Philippe Martinez, stressing that “until then, every day, there will be initiatives in companies, in the departments” .
As for the leader of the CFDT, Laurent Berger, he deplored the form chosen by the executive to examine his bill: an amending budget for Social Security, which makes it possible to limit the debates in time and to use at leisure the weapon of 49.3.
“You cannot evade this text on pensions, in this social climate”, he argued on France 5.
AFP
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