“A great victory” for the right

Laurent Wauquiez, president of the Republican Right group in the National Assembly, announced, Monday evening, two increases in pensions in 2025, while the government defended the freezing of pension indexation on inflation for six months.

“There will be a revaluation from January 1 for all pensions.” This news was not announced by the government, but by Laurent Wauquiez, the president of the Republican Right group in the National Assembly, on TF1, Monday evening.

It is a victory for the deputy for Haute-Loire and his parliamentary group. Firmly opposed to the freezing of pension indexation on inflation for six months desired by the government in its Social Security financing bill, they obtained a compromise.

With the six-month freeze, the government hoped to save 4 billion euros. This revaluation would cost, according to Laurent Wauquiez, “between 500 million and 1 billion” euros, which he intends to find in the rationalization of the “administrative bureaucracy”.

Concretely, there should be two pension increases next year. A first of 0.9% on January 1, 2025 for all retirees, which corresponds to approximately half of inflation.

To protect retirees who earn below the minimum wage, below 1,400 euros, there will be a second increase on July 1, with retroactive effect. The objective is for the pensions of the most modest to reach the level of inflation at the end of the year.

A threshold contested by the opposition

“By announcing that for retirees, we have upgraded everyone from January 1, and small pensions at 100%, it is a great victory for Laurent Wauquiez and for all my colleagues on the Republican right,” welcomes Jean -Didier Berger, Republican Right deputy for Hauts-de-Seine.

But the victory is contested by the opposition, who consider the proposed threshold unfair. “There are retirees who, with 1,400 euros today, cannot make ends meet. They are, for example, tenants, it is not the same thing as if they are owners, and therefore it is a threshold which does not take into account the inequalities which exist today among retirees”, regrets Arthur Delaporte, PS deputy for Calvados.

The latter is also alarmed by the savings announced for state operators to compensate for this measure on pensions. Everything will be clarified by Michel Barnier soon.