Will the pension reform, the only reform of Emmanuel Macron's second five-year term, be suspended? On the eve of François Bayrou's general policy speech to the National Assembly, the executive is actively negotiating with the oppositions on the 2025 budget. The Socialist Party wants the legal retirement age, supposed to gradually reach 64, to be “frozen” at its current level of 62 and a half. And this, without time limit, as desired by the socialist deputy for Calvados Arthur Delaporte.
Guest of Grand Jury RTL, M6, Le FigaroPublic Senate, on January 12, the boss of the Ecologists, Marine Tondelier, indicated: “It’s moving”. “I see that there are small steps being taken. It is largely insufficient compared to what we are asking for, but it is moving forward. Today, when Emmanuel Macron, François Bayrou and the Budget Minister meet, they talk about how we are backpedaling on pensions“she explained.
Emmanuel Macron is ready to touch the totem of retirement age raised to 64 years. “But he imposes conditions on François Bayrou which will make the exercise a little more difficult, particularly in terms of financial balance,” notes Olivier Bost, head of RTL’s political department. “But it is true that he has evolved a lot. For a simple and good reason, the head of state, if he sees a new Prime Minister fall, will find himself on the front line. The question of resignation will arise. to rest. So, he prefers to keep François Bayrou, even if it costs a little.” he analyzes.
The Socialist Party at the heart of the negotiations
In order to avoid censorship from his government, François Bayrou adopted a strategy different from that of his predecessor, Michel Barnier: negotiate with the left. At the end of a new wave of negotiations, the first secretary of the Socialist Party, Olivier Faureblows hot and cold. In an interview given to Libération on January 12, he declared : “We don't want positions, we want to extract concessions for the French who, without us, would not see the light of day (…) While being open to compromise because the policy of the worst can lead the country to the worst of policies”. The same day, this time on BFMTV, the PS deputy for Seine-et-Marne increased the pressure on François Bayrou, indicating that he expected the Prime Minister to “suspend” the pension reform.
But Olivier Faure clarified that the Socialist Party was not not “setting a trap for the government”, but on the contrary “to find the right reasons for the French to say yes, there was a discussion, yes, they managed to find compromises”.
“We want to ensure that we have both guaranteed our pay-as-you-go pension system and that we have done so by not placing the burden of financing on the most precarious,” he explained, putting the situation into perspective. threat of censorship.
Renaissance elected officials divided, LR denounces an “irresponsible” idea
If Emmanuel Macron and François Bayrou decide to grant this concession to the left, the duo at the head of state will upset the right. The president of the Republicans of the Senate, Gérard Larcher, wants “neither suspension nor repeal” of the pension reform. While the boss of the Les Républicains deputies, Laurent Wauquiez, judged thata suspension would be “irresponsible”. “Without an alternative scenario”, this would amount to “jump into the void without a parachute. It will be without the Republican Right!”
-A line applied by other LR tenors, starting with Valérie Pécresse. On France inter, the LR president of the Île-de-France region declared: “I think that in these conditions, the right could no longer participate in this government.”
The presidential camp is divided on the issue. Renaissance President of the National Assembly Yaël Braun-Pivet affirmed “not to be opposed in principle” to the fact to briefly “stop” pension reform to “re-discuss” it. The reform “is not perfect”, and even “unfair”, she conceded. “There are many subjects to still discuss,” she added, referring to arduousness, long careers or women’s retirements. But Renaissance MP for Val-de-Marne Mathieu Lefèvre is opposed to it. “To suspend is to repeal, we must stop playing with words. We cannot afford to unravel the pension reform,” he said on RMC.
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