The video extract went viral in recent days on social networks. We see Emmanuel Macron speaking out against… the extension of working hours. “Should the legal age be raised, today at 62? I do not believe that. As long as we have not solved the problem of unemployment in our country, it would be quite hypocritical, ”he said in April 2019. A change of footing denounced by opponents of the government bill, which provides for retirement at 64 years with acceleration of the Touraine reform. But the President of the Republic is not the only one to have modified his position on this thorny question.
Emmanuel Macron (and his government)
In 2019, therefore, as part of the Great National Debate, Emmanuel Macron mentioned the fight against unemployment to better sweep away the idea of extending retirement. The president also explained that he had not received a mandate for this, rather touting his project to set up a universal points system, which will ultimately be abandoned due to Covid-19 at the start of 2020. Three years later, however, the president-candidate defended “the legal retirement age at 65” during the presidential campaign. In between the two rounds, in an attempt to recover part of the left-wing electorate, the head of state softened his position, however, “opening the door” to a departure at 64, to find a “consensus” on this sensitive subject with the social partners.
Statements by ministers have also been unearthed on social media. Marlène Schiappa, the Secretary of State for the Social and Solidarity Economy, explained in a blog her opposition to the reform of François Fillon in 2010. “People want to retire before they die of work fatigue,” she wrote. Finally, the Minister of Labor Olivier Dussopt, in charge of the current text, denounced the same year a law “doubly unfair”asking that “the effort does not relate to the only employees”.
The Republicans
Not so long ago, the right defended with one voice (or almost) the postponement of the legal retirement age to 65 years. The measure appeared in the program of François Fillon in 2017, of Valérie Pécresse during the previous presidential election and of most of the other candidates for the LR primary. “I will raise the retirement age to 65 over the five-year term. Only this effort will save our social protection system,” so said Eric Ciotti in his project. When the head of state had also presented this measure, the right had also shouted “plagiarism”.
A few weeks ago, the tone was very different. The same Eric Ciotti and other elected LRs castigated the raising to 65 with Elisabeth Borne, judging it too “brutal”. After having defended this proposal for years, the right has finally weighed with all its weight in the National Assembly to “lighten” the text of the executive.
The National Rally
Marine Le Pen hopes to embody the main force of opposition to Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform. And if it is true that the former boss of the RN has long been opposed to an extension of working hours, she also changed her position during the previous campaign. After having defended for ten years a retirement at age 60 “for all” with 40 annuities, the deputy for Hénin-Beaumont finally reviewed her copy in 2022. Anxious to appear more “credible” economically, the candidate RN then proposes a “progressive” system according to the age of entry into active life: retirement at 60 for those entering the labor market before the age of 20 and maintenance of the legal age at 62 for most others. “We are pragmatic. It’s not a reversal: we take into account the economic situation,” will then try to justify his right armJordan Bardella, referring to the “600 billion euros in debt” left by Emmanuel Macron.
The Socialist Party
The position of the PS in recent months is very difficult to follow. During the previous presidential election, Anne Hidalgo and the socialists defended maintaining the legal age at 62… without however touching on the famous Touraine reform. This text, voted in 2013 by the socialist majority (with the voices of the current boss of the PS Olivier Faure in particular), proposed to gradually extend the contribution period necessary to obtain a full pension, to 172 quarters, for people born from 1973. This is that is to say the 43 annuities provided for in the current government’s bill (in addition to the 64 years).
But a few months later, the management of the PS fired his cuti, signing theprogrammatic agreement within the framework of Nupes, which proposed to “restore the right to retirement at age 60 at the full rate for all after forty years of contribution”. Today, the PS now seems to be doing the splits: retirement at age 60, yes, but with the maintenance of the 43 annuities. “When you conclude an alliance, you are led to make amendments to your own project […] On pensions, we are discussing again with our partners,” says Olivier Faure, this Mondayi, on Franceinfo. For yet another twist on the subject?