Even if she has “no doubt that some would see themselves well in [sa] place”, Elisabeth Borne does not intend to let go of her chair. In an interview at JDD, the Prime Minister declares that she wishes to continue her work at Matignon. She also considers it possible, despite the pension crisis, to restore dialogue with the unions that she will receive on Tuesday and Wednesday.
“For the past year, I have been working to provide concrete responses to meet the country’s considerable challenges that our country is facing. I want to continue to take up these challenges, and I will put all my energy and determination into it”, she said in this interview carried out at the end of a three-day trip to Reunion. “Advancing is the only thing that matters to me,” she explains.
The supposed ambitions of Darmanin
Asked about her Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin, to whom we regularly lend the ambition to settle in Matignon, Elisabeth Borne praises “his personality, his career, his experience”. Before adding: “He is very committed to his duties as minister”.
Eager like Emmanuel Macron to turn the painful page of pension reform, the head of government will therefore receive the unions. “Even after these turbulent months, I remain convinced that more space must be given to negotiation and social dialogue. This is why I did not wish to send a detailed agenda for these meetings: I am attentive to the priorities that the trade unions and employers’ organizations wish to put in the discussion”, she declares.
“Everyone is perfectly aware of the importance of the issues: the prevention of professional wear and tear, the employment of seniors, retraining, the universal time savings account… In all these areas, I have no doubt that the trade unions and employers’ organizations want to take responsibility,” she adds.
Terminal very critical of the attitude of the Liot group
Elisabeth Borne is also very severe on the bill to repeal the postponement of the retirement age to 64, which will be examined in the National Assembly on June 8. This text is submitted by the small independent group Liot (Freedoms, independents, overseas, territories) and raises hopes among opponents of the reform. “It is irresponsible to believe that this bill could succeed! We are telling the French people that not only are we not concerned with bringing the pension system back into balance, but, worse, that we are worsening its imbalance! “, she protests. “It’s serious to lie to the French,” she adds.
If adopted by the Assembly, this text would follow a long and complex legislative journey which makes its final vote highly uncertain. But it would still be a “political earthquake” and Emmanuel Macron should take it into account, said the president of the group Liot Bertrand Pancher.