The time of Emmanuel Macron's promises is long gone. In 2017, he assured: “I will maintain the standard of living of retirees“, et “the purchasing power of small pensions (is) protected with me“.
Or, “since January 2017, our pensions have lagged behind price developments by 5.3% and their purchasing power has been reduced by the equivalent of 3.1 months of pension. For those who suffered the 25% increase in the CSG in 2018, the loss amounts to 7.8%, or the equivalent of 4.5 months of pension“, proclaimed Michel Solbes, general secretary of the Union of Retirees of the CGT 84, this Tuesday, December 3 in front of the gates of the prefecture.
“Stop au hold-up !”
“Attacking retirees is enough!“, he urged the government. Before claiming “an immediate increase in pensions and retirements, up to 10% (as well as) access for all to care and health and quality local public services“.
Demands reaffirmed by Daniel Gressier and Jacques Fassié, his counterparts from FSU 84 and UDR-FO 84, in front of around fifty equally angry supporters.
To use a famous expression: “everything goes to hell”. And the decision to revalue pensions by half the inflation (0.9%) on January 1, 2025 then the smallest ones – below the minimum wage – on the following July 1 (announcement made Monday November 11 by Laurent Wauquiez, confirmed by the Minister of the Budget) is not likely to calm people's minds.
In Vaucluse (which has around 130,000 retirees from the general scheme), “a fifth of 60-74 year olds live below the poverty line, so we must be between one in three or four retirees below this threshold“, estimates Alain Grangé of the USR CGT (in an article dated November 27 in The Marseillaise). An assessment corroborated by INSEE: 30% of poor households in the Sud-Paca region are retirees, we read in an October 2023 report.
It is therefore to be feared that further actions will take place in the months to come.
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