Reforming pensions: since 2017, this has been Emmanuel Macron’s great ambition. A will intact during his second five-year term with nuances since during the first five-year term, there was no question of reaching the legal retirement age.
Pension reform: why Macron wants to impose it
“Should the legal age, which is now 62, be raised? I do not believe “affirmed the President of the Republic in April 2019, during the press conference at the end of the Great National Debate.
A commitment then taken up by the entire majority, Aurore Bergé in the lead: “All French people, if they wish, will be able to continue leaving at the legal age which will be 62 years old. This is the commitment we made during the campaign and it will be maintained: it is 62 years”hammered the spokesperson for LREM on TV sets in December 2019.
As early as October 2018, the Minister of Labor Muriel Pénicaud justified the same thing: “The President of the Republic said that he would not change the legal retirement age, in unison with Agnès Buzyn, Minister of Solidarity: “Today there is no question of challenge the legal retirement age. »
A presidential but also governmental commitment confirmed by Prime Minister Edouard Philippe: “We will maintain the possibility of leaving at 62 by not changing the legal age”he said to the National Assembly in June 2019.
“Good luck already to reach 62 years old”
This first five-year term was that of the major project to reform the points system, a project buried during the pandemic and which had provoked numerous demonstrations.
Emmanuel Macron then justified his decision not to reach the legal age by the question of unemployment: “Today, when you are poorly qualified, when you live in a region which is in industrial difficulty, when you are in difficulty yourself, when you have a fractured career, good luck already to reach 62 years old. This is the reality of our country”specified the president after the Great National Debate.
For the second five-year term, in the eyes of the majority, the situation on the employment front is no longer the same, the issue of unemployment among seniors is changing. It therefore becomes possible to reach the age of 62. New mandate, new commitment, specified in his declarations on July 14: “What I am committed to in my presidential campaign is to say: we must gradually shift the legal retirement age to 65. » Even if, as Elisabeth Borne pointed out at the beginning of January, “65 years old is not a totem”.
This Tuesday, January 10, the Borne government presents its choices for the future of the pension system. So, 65, 64? In any case, the time when the Macron clan pledged not to change the legal age is well forgotten. Faced with this development, the coming weeks will show the determination of the political and trade union opposition.
