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- Traveling in the Lot this Thursday, the President of the Republic fueled speculation on the explosive pension reform, suspended since March 2020 by the pandemic.
- On the pension issue, he stressed that “nothing is excluded”, but he “does not think that the reform which was initially envisaged can be resumed as it is”.
- The Head of State is faced with this dilemma: putting the reform into action at the risk of relaunching the protest or pushing it back and exposing himself to criticism from the opposition.
“Whatever happens, I will preside until the last quarter of an hour”, warned Emmanuel Macron. But will the head of state continue the reforms for the last ten months of his five-year term? Traveling in the Lot this Thursday, the President of the Republic fueled speculation on the perilous pension reform, suspended since March 2020 by the coronavirus pandemic.
“I do not think that the reform which was initially envisaged can be resumed as it is,” said the Head of State to the press, while stressing that he will have to make “difficult” decisions so that the last year of the five-year term is “useful” to the country.
Relaunch the reform, at the risk of relaunching the dispute?
If the head of state is cautious, it is because the file is potentially explosive. In December 2019, the project to “set up a points system” had mobilized hundreds of thousands of people throughout France. The government had also had to scrap the National Assembly, being forced to pass the text in force, in March 2020, by resorting to article 49-3. The social conflict had ceased due to the outbreak of Covid-19, before the bill reached the Senate. Relaunching the reform means taking the risk of relaunching the mobilization movement, at a time when the epidemic persists in the territory.
“The text has become an instrumentalised political object. If we want to succeed in this pension reform, let’s take the time to survey the country, to reach a consensus, ”pleads the MoDem deputy of Finistère, Erwan Balanant. “This is a good subject for the next presidential election, which will allow time for debate. And the candidate who will have been elected by carrying this reform will have the legitimacy to carry it out ”. Because if the candidate Macron had promised in 2017 a universal pension plan, he did not then mention the need to establish a pivotal age, a measure that ignited the powder in 2019.
Do not hinder the image of the reforming president
The fact remains that the Head of State is also in a hurry by part of his camp, and in particular the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire, who considers it “necessary” to make the pay-as-you-go system viable. By postponing until after 2022 this text which he himself judges as “the mother of all reforms”, the president would be taking a risk: being accused of immobility, by the right in particular, before the start of the campaign. presidential. The Republican deputy of Yonne, Guillaume Larrivé, denounced this Friday on Public Senate “These irresponsible politicians who say that you should never do anything because there are elections. We must be able to deal with the issue of pensions and that of controlling public spending ”.
In the majority also, some push to consolidate the image of a “reforming president”. “The timetable seems too tight for full reform. But the age measurement is necessary. It will arouse great emotion, but putting it in place before the presidential election would be a demonstration of political courage, ”Judge Anne Genetet, Member of Parliament and spokesperson for the LREM group in the Assembly.
On the side of the Secretary of State in charge of Pensions, we are content to use the name of Emmanuel Macron. “Nothing is excluded today. The reform process was suspended at the start of the crisis by the president, but we never stopped working on several scenarios ”. Raising the legal age? Increase in the duration of contributions? What about special diets? Emmanuel Macron should “be able to explain at the beginning of July when he presents his roadmap for the coming months” with certainly a social summit, indicates a government source to AFP.
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