Sacrificed generations: the real losers of the pension reform

Is it “a reform that combines justice and efficiency” as said, head held high and without blinking, Bruno Le Maire, Minister of the Economy? Or rather “a reform of financial balance on the sole back of the workers” as Laurent Berger, the boss of the CFDT, the country’s first union, sees it? The major overhaul of the pension financing system, finally revealed by Elisabeth Borne on January 10 after months of hesitation and adjustments, has created division. Admittedly, in an attempt at conciliation, the Elysée finally accepted that the French would not be forced to work until the age of 65, instead of 62 today, but ” only “ up to 64 years from 2030. This was not enough to calm the leader of the CFDT, and even less the other trade unionists.

Laurent Berger had however been one of the rare defenders of the first version of the retirement plan, the one launched in 2017, on a concept which did not displease the economist Thomas Piketty either. During his first five-year term, Emmanuel Macron had dreamed of a radical overhaul of pensions by putting all French people on the same level, by eliminating all special regimes thanks to a calculation by points, and by not questioning, initially, the minimum retirement age. But between the opposition of unions other than the CFDT – supported only by the CFTC and partially by Unsa – then the arrival of the Covid, the retirement by points was abandoned. In 2023, it