The pension debate is a moment of truth for Macronism. finished on ” at the same time “where the “neither right nor left”. The target is clear: it is the social identity of France. For the President of the Republic, it is time to put an end to a model that he considers archaic. Our social protection costs too much, “crazy dough”. It encourages inactivity when more work should be done. After tightening access to unemployment insurance, now he is attacking the pension system. With the same method: weaken the mechanisms of national solidarity. This is the common thread of Macron’s reforms. Clearly, to force the French to work more, Macron reduces acquired rights, and organizes social insecurity.
Pensions: two days before the strike, a strong mobilization is looming
What is the problem of financing pensions? It is a question of finding 12 to 20 billion per year to balance a system which collects more than 300. Many solutions are possible. For example, the economist Michaël Zemmour proposes five concrete measures:
- remove unnecessary contribution exemptions (2 billion);
- include employee savings in contributions (3 billion):
- stagger the repayment of the social debt (10 billion);
- reverse the fall in the CVAE (8 billion);
- increase contributions by 0.8 point (12 billion).
Other avenues of revenue are possible, as Macron has been generous with the wealthiest and large companies. But it is remarkable that of all the answers available, Macron chose the only path that constitutes social regression.
Extending the lifespan and freed time are, however, two pillars of modernity. The Republic itself built its legitimacy on a few major achievements, including worker and peasant pensions in 1910, social insurance in 1928, paid leave in 1936, Social Security in 1945, retirement at age 60 in 1982. are the heart of republican social progress.
Macron is in the minority
But the whole Macronian ambition is to make people forget this model. Since we live longer, we should work longer (43 years) and retire later (64 instead of 62). To reform the system, it would have to be distorted. Such is the progressivism revisited by Macron: medicine offers you a few more years, so you will return part of it to labor! Society progresses, rights must regress. So-called common sense verging on nonsense.
Such a project is unjust, brutal, regressive. The measures announced will have a major impact on the most vulnerable, people who entered working life the earliest, mothers, second-line employees. Never mind. The president and his lieutenants speak of a reform of justice, balance and progress. Rightly, the philosopher Myriam Revault d’Allonnes defines the spirit of macronism as “the art of perverting concepts”.
Therefore, how can we be surprised by a massive rejection of this reform in public opinion? An Ifop poll of January 11 and 12 shows that 68% of French people are against it. The highest rate of support is found among retirees (48%), that is to say those who will not have to undergo it, while 80% of workers disapprove of it. Unsurprisingly, a gap also exists according to income: the wealthy categories (+ €2,500 per month) adhere to 46%, while the modest categories (from €900 to €1,300 in income) oppose it at 82%.
Another survey shows strong support (59% of French people) for the idea of contributing more to avoid retiring later. There would be a consensual and reasonable solution, capable of uniting the country around its social protection system. But this way of appeasement seems excluded for the moment. Macron is in the minority. He knows it, and has chosen the path of confrontation to bring the social movement into line. The outcome of this project will therefore depend on the collective determination to defend our pension system. A wind of anger has risen in the world of work. May it be the breath of a mobilization against a president of the “Republic on the margins” of popular aspirations.
Chronicle of the cultural battle, each week, alternating with Beligh Nabli, jurist.
