He stays the course. “I hope that the Senate can enrich” the text on the pension reform “with what seems useful to him”, indicated this Saturday Emmanuel Macron, three days before the examination of the bill by the upper house.
“I saw (that) the Senate wanted to get things done on family policy and women’s rights. I think that the government will approach (this debate) with openness and the will to engage in order to build a majority behind this text, ”continued the head of state. He also pointed out that the Senate, with a majority on the right, had in the past “several times carried reforms which were quite close to that of today”.
“Do not dig deficits”
The text on the pension reform must be examined from Tuesday by the senators, ten days after heated debates in the Assembly which could not be completed. In an interview at Parisian published this Saturday evening, the boss of the group Les Républicains in the upper house, Bruno Retailleau, indicated “wish to vote (the text), after having modified it”, in particular in order to “not dig into the deficits, but manage to to fill in “.
“We intend to offer the government two options: either a 5% premium for mothers who have reached both a full career and the legal age, or an early departure at 63,” added Bruno Retailleau, referring to also the idea of an “end-of-career contract which would be exempt from family contributions” for employees aged at least 60 years.
The “concerns” of the French
The President of the Republic, who was speaking on the sidelines of a visit to the Paris Agricultural Show, put an end to the media discretion observed since the beginning of the debates on the reform.
On the contrary, he defended his project at length, all day this Saturday, to the many onlookers who questioned him on the subject, sometimes in a lively way. “I did not find anger among our compatriots”, he however assured, saying to perceive “concern”.
“This is also what is expressed in the demonstrations on pensions: when we listen to people, it is not retirement, the subject. It’s the work and the working conditions”, continued Emmanuel Macron, considering that “many people who demonstrate, it’s the prospect of their career, it’s ‘does my job pay me enough? or not ?” “. “There is a feeling of injustice”, he still considered.