When he was a socialist deputy, Olivier Dussopt strongly opposed the pension reform defended by the government of François Fillon.
“This desire to raise the retirement age is doubly unfair”. Another statement from an elected official of the New Popular Ecological and Social Union (Nupes)? No, these remarks, dating from 2010, are from Olivier Dussopt, at the time a PS deputy, but today Minister of Labor, on the front line to defend the reform of executive pensions. It will be presented to the French on January 10 and should consist in particular in extending the legal age of departure to 64 or 65 years.
2010 is another time, but seems similar to the present in certain points: there too, for the government of François Fillon, it is a question of reforming the pension system – this will lead to a gradual extension of the legal retirement age from 60 at 62 years old. There too, the opposition made known its disapproval. Notable difference however: Olivier Dussopt is part of the second camp.
“Smoke Curtains”
Elected for the first time deputy of the Ardèche in 2007, he sits on the socialist benches. On May 4, during questions to the government, the parliamentarian took the floor and challenged Éric Woerth, then Minister of Labour. As he speaks, consultations with the social partners are continuing and the exact content of the bill has not yet been presented.
“You have already decided the axes of your reform”, however accuses Olivier Dussopt, relying on “information from the Elysée”, “taken up by the press”.
He castigates the “government and the Élysée”, which “plan to raise the legal retirement age gradually from 60 to 63 by 2030”.
Proof, according to him, that the “discussions you are having today are only alibis and smokescreens” for the government to “mask [ses] intentions until the last moment”. The Ardéchois thus denounces “a sham intended to make believe that you have other priorities than those that the Medef blows to you and a contempt for the proposals made by the other social partners that you finally receive without listening to them or hearing them”.
“Unfair”
At the time, for Olivier Dussopt, “this desire to raise the retirement age is doubly unfair”. First, because it “immediately dismisses the search for other recipes”, such as “the contribution of all income”. “Between the tax loopholes and the shield of the same name, a lot could be done so that the effort does not concern only employees,” he adds. A remark resolutely on the left which is reminiscent of the positions of the Nupes.
Then, he points out, this reform is “unfair too, because it will bring the effort to generations born after 1970”, also already affected by “precariousness” and “historical unemployment”.
In response, Eric Woerth seeks to demonstrate that the government is listening – an echo of the present, once again. “We talk a lot,” said the minister in particular, before shelling out: “I received Martine Aubry, Marie-Georges Buffet, François Bayrou, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, I receive Jean-Michel Baylet just now. J received Jean-Marie Le Pen.” “Nothing is decided, nothing is arbitrated”, he assures.
Another time. Since then, Olivier Dussopt like Éric Woerth have left their respective training to join the presidential camp.
