In France, all roads lead to retirement

Published on January 13, 2025 at 8:13 p.m. / Modified on January 13, 2025 at 8:14 p.m.

3 mins. reading

This Tuesday, François Bayrou delivers his general policy speech, the one which should convince the socialists and the traditional right (as well as possibly the far right) not to censor him. The intense behind-the-scenes negotiations which accompanied the design of this program, particularly on the budget, which will be its cornerstone and the first huge pitfall, clearly show, if necessary, the fundamental shock that the pension reform will have been. by Emmanuel Macron. We always come back to it and it is always on it that attempts at compromise at the center stumble, whether we call them “non-censorship agreement” or “common base”.

These major tensions on the subject of annuities are not always motivated by economic or budgetary convictions but very often by the symbolic weight that this reform has taken on. The question is not to know what pension plan France needs at a time of debt and aging, but how the various electorates positioned themselves in the face of this law which tore France apart for months in 2023 Which could well, a posteriori, make the trauma of this debate and the social movement which accompanied it the spark which truly launched the political (and perhaps soon economic) fire which is consuming France.

Le Temps publishes columns, written by members of the editorial staff or external people, as well as opinions and columns, proposed to personalities or requested by them. These texts reflect the point of view of their authors. They in no way represent the position of the media.

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