Towards a first sign of openness? In an interview given to JDD this Sunday, February 5, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said she heard the request of the Republicans (LR) concerning the limitation to 43 years of the contribution period for those who started working before the age of 21 – which is the subject of an amendment. “The deputies of our majority and the LRs wanted to allow current retirees – and not only future – to benefit from the revaluation of the minimum pension. […] I also hear their wish for those who started working early. We are going to move by extending this long career system to those who started working between the ages of 20 and 21. They will thus be able to leave at the age of 63, in accordance with the rules provided for by the system., she specifies. This measure will cost “between 600 million and one billion euros per year, and which will concern up to 30,000 people per year”.
For his part, in a meeting at the Parisianthe president of the LR, Eric Ciotti, says he is “very confident in [la] ability [des LR] to obtain satisfaction on this essential point”. “If Elisabeth Borne knows how to listen to the relevant proposals that we make, the use of 49.3 will not be necessary”, he adds, while the head of government announced do not consider this hypothesis for the time being, preferring to seek “compromises”.
The January 19 mobilization did not slow down the government’s timetable. The text of the pension reform was presented to the Council of Ministers on Monday January 23 with the main lines unchanged: postponement of the age to 64 by 2030, increase in the minimum pension to 85% of the net minimum wage, or even the abolition of special regimes, such as those of the RATP, the electricity and gas industries or the Banque de France.
Still opposed to the measure, the eight union confederations (CFDT, CGT, FO, CFE-CGC, CFTC, Unsa, Solidaires and FSU) have decided to call for two new interprofessional mobilizations, on Tuesday 7 and Saturday 11 FEBRUARY. “The government still does not want to hear it and withdraw its reform, so we are intensifying the demonstrations,” said Frédéric Souillot, secretary general of Force Ouvrière (FO). On Tuesday January 31, 1.27 million people mobilized everywhere in France according to the Ministry of the Interior, 2.8 million according to the CGT. They were 1.12 million – 2 million according to the unions – on January 19, during the first day of the strike. According to an Ipsos Sopra Steria poll for franceinfo and France Television published on February 2, around seven out of ten respondents “support” the mobilizations (72%) and the strikes (69%).
