“Retirement is a little moment of happiness that I wish everyone”. Not far from the head of the Parisian procession of the mobilization against the pension reform, this Tuesday, January 31, Geneviève is preparing to set off from the Place d’Italie with the activists around her. At 66, this former secondary school teacher came accompanied by Patricia, 65, a former kindergarten teacher. Both are retired, but they still wanted to move to show their opposition to the government’s reform project, which aims to raise the retirement age to 64 years. A participation which illustrates well the loss of support of pensioners for the reform, against the watch of a survey Elabe for BFMTV, published on January 26. They are now 59% to express their opposition to the project. However, 68% of Emmanuel Macron’s voters remain in favor of the reform.
“Retirement at 64? We will be the big losers ”: in the Parisian procession, the women are determined
“We are lucky to have retired at an age when we can still enjoy leisure, children… I worked until I was 62, and it was time for it to stop! »confides to “the Obs” the former teacher, whom you can listen to in our video above.
“Do you think it’s good for children to have grannies as mistresses? she adds. I sometimes saw it in the eyes of the parents, it’s not fun to have old people who teach them. It’s hard to talk, we’re more tired, we have less patience…”
“Throughout life, we are taken up by school, studies, work, family, children. When we finally reach retirement, it’s a freedom like I’ve never known, it’s a little happiness that I wish everyone! »
“I was happy to be able to stop! »
“Retirement is the culmination of a lifetime of work, at some point you need something else, you have to rest because the body no longer follows”, abounds by his side Patricia. Since she retired, she enjoys the freedom that her new situation offers her; a freedom she wishes for all other workers.
Like them, many retirees in Paris demonstrated against Emmanuel Macron’s reform, those who have already stopped working. If they are not concerned with the reform, they are nevertheless well placed to talk about retirement and the relief it has sometimes been after a lifetime of work.
“Two more years, for free”: women facing pension reform
At 65, Jean-Marie has definitely stopped working for a little over three years. After a career as a psychomotrician, educator and worker in a social action mutual, if he liked his jobs, he was “Glad to be able to stop! » « From the age of 55, you begin to have your head full. » Wrapped in a red scarf in the Parisian cold, he believes that “life is getting longer and that’s good, what you should hope for is that it can be extended in good conditions, you have to be able to live it fully in good health. »
Above all, he underlines, if he came to demonstrate, it is also because he is thinking about his retirement pension: “What is being asked is the question of the financing of pensions. It is not enough to make people work more to balance this system, which is not out of balance, but if we want to be able to increase retirement pensions in particular, there is a way to do it differently, in particular by taxing everything that is financial profits. »
“We are governed by people above ground”
Same concern for Jean-Marc, 71, hat and dark glasses, who awaits the launch of the procession on a bench in the Place d’Italie. “I don’t question the need to reform pension schemes, but I think the best thing is to get the money where it is rather than going to the pocket funds of people who don’t have too many. » This former entrepreneur says “not to complain”, compared to other occupations. But if he is not concerned by the extension of the retirement age, he says he is concerned, like many, by “the retirement pension which does not increase. » « My purchasing power is decreasing every day, especially with the current inflation. So imagine for those who start it at 1,000 euros, what it will represent in 2030, in 2040…”
By the way, what is the purpose of the legal retirement age? Three economists were asked the question
“We are governed by people above ground”, grumbles Colette, an 85-year-old former secretary. She came to demonstrate with her husband Gérard, 84, who worked in heavy industry. “Emmanuel Macron should rather put his feet on the ground and go see in our alleys. We live in the 20th arrondissement, I can tell you that there are a lot of poor people on the street, and they will never retire! » They have working children and are worried about their future. Just like Joëlle, 70, retired from the National Assembly for 5 years. She later worked by choice in a profession that she loved very much, but today she feels “Solidarity for those who will have to work late, and as a woman, I am particularly sensitive to this particularly unfair reform for women. »
