Let’s not beat around the bush: the initiative of La France Insoumise that wants to repeal the pension reform of 2023 as well as the Touraine reform of 2014 is completely irresponsible.
Pensions are by far the most important item of public spending: almost €400 billion, or one in four euros of public money that goes into the pockets of retirees each year.
It is the budgetary elephant in the middle of the room, which has grown 50 billion in 5 years, and Francia Insumisa would like to accelerate the weight gain.
So before the vote, a little reading advice for deputies before the vote: this note from the Pensions Guidance Council (COR) that has just been published and which makes a very interesting comparison between the pension systems in France and Germany.
We learn, among other things, that France benefits from the most generous regime and that we are the most dissatisfied with it. “France, this paradise populated by people convinced of living in hell,” Sylvain Tesson could have summarized.
In 2019, indicates the COR, France spent three points of GDP more on pensions than Germany (13.4% of GDP compared to 10.4%). This gap has remained roughly the same, meaning we spend around 100 billion more on our pension system than our neighbors. It’s no big deal.
Two reasons for this. First of all, the higher level of pensions. The average standard of living of French seniors (over 65 years) is close to that of the entire population (97%), while in Germany it is lower (88%). But, above all, people retire much earlier in France (62.3, going up to 64) than in the rest of Europe in general (65 years on average) and in Germany in particular (67 years).
Retirees are favored over active workers
As a result, the employment rate here is 15 points lower than on the other side of the Rhine. That is why in thirty years the increase in pension spending has been 2.5 times greater in France than in Germany. France favored retirees while Germany favored workers.
What is incredible is that opinions on the standard of living of retirees are less positive in France than in Germany. In 2016, three quarters (73%) of French people thought the standard of living of retirees was poor, compared to 53% in Germany alone. Although in France the average standard of living of people aged 65 is almost the same as that of workers (97%), while in Germany it is lower (88%).
More than 40% of French people finally thought that they would not be able to continue working beyond the age of 60 in 2015, compared to only 20% of Germans (European survey on working conditions). From there to say that work is health…
Source: BFM TV
