For the president of the Modem, “the challenge is that [la réforme] appears to be right and this is the condition for it to be accepted”.
“I think it can be improved.” It is in these terms that François Bayrou described the government’s pension reform on Wednesday morning on LCI. The boss of the Modem, in favor of an increase in employer contributions, was not followed by the executive.
“I know very well that the government is not of this opinion and my idea is not to hinder it or put it in difficulty”, assured the mayor of Pau. Before insisting: “The situation is that many French people have the feeling that efforts are being asked of the same people, of those who are at work, and not of all those who are at the head of companies. And to specify:
“It is not a question of making the bosses contribute, but the companies”.
“You will lose jobs”
François Bayrou took out his calculator. The effort required would reach “about 0.7% of the payroll”. It would be all the more legitimate according to him that “this year, the latter will increase by more than 5%”.
Remains that for the government, it is always niet.
“Why don’t we make companies pay more? Because you will cut jobs”, justified Olivier Véran, government spokesperson at the same time on France Info.
The same evening, François Bayrou put a ladle back in the columns of the Parisian. “I think we can make progress, improve the reform,” he reiterates. “The challenge is that it appears to be fair and that is the condition for it to be accepted”.
“Pedagogy”
This is not the first time that the triple presidential candidate has been heard on pension reform. “We are not in parts”, he had temporized at the end of September 2022 during his party’s summer university, believing that the subject deserved a longer debate. Emmanuel Macron, he wanted to go quickly, but had finally agreed to leave more room for consultation.
Convinced François Bayrou? “Thanks to this delay, we avoided the trap of forceful passage, which would have led to a social explosion”, he congratulates himself to the Parisian.
While being critical: “I would have hoped that we would use these four months to bring the pedagogy of reform to public opinion. This has not been done for decades.”
