The National Assembly voted unanimously on Thursday for a LR bill that allows increasing, from 2026, the pensions of independent farmers, modifying the method of calculating their pension. The text provides for “extending to non-salaried agricultural workers”, in particular to farm administrators and “collaborating spouses”, “the calculation of the basic pension only over the twenty-five best years”, and no longer over their entire career.
Retired property managers receive an average of 1079 euros gross for a full career (excluding reversion), according to elements of the Mutuelle sociale agricole (MSA).
This is a “terrible admission of the failure of our old-age insurance system” for a profession with “restrictive working conditions” with “two-thirds of farmers taking no more than three consecutive days of vacation a year,” he added. .
“A Republican Compromise”
In order for the text to be approved, narrowly rejected in committee, Julien Dive had submitted an amendment that would bring the gradual entry into force of this measure back to January 2026, and no longer to 2024. It is about “giving the Mutualité sociale agricole time” to adapt to the new calculation method.
Labor Minister Olivier Dussopt said he was in favor of the amended bill, seeing it as “a republican compromise”. The macronistas, who advocate consultation and an outstretched hand, could hardly reject all the texts from a potential ally.
On this agreed issue, two laws called Chassaigne 1 and 2 had already been unanimously approved: in 2020 a first text had raised the pensions of former farm managers to a minimum level of 85% of the net minimum wage, and a second had increased the small pensions of collaborating spouses of farmers in 2021.
“Second Zone”
In the chamber, André Chassaigne, president of the communist group, gave his support to Julien Dive’s text:
From LFI to RN, all elected officials welcomed the measure and the “co-construction” in favor of an “essential” profession, although some deplored the postponement from 2024 to 2026. Approved on first reading, the text will be transmitted to the Senate, with majority right. The issue is crucial to the attractiveness of the profession, Julien Dive insisted, as one in two farmers will reach retirement age by 2030.
According to Luc Smessaert, the FNSEA vice president in charge of pensions, farmers were considered “second class” pensioners because historically, “those who retire had a garden, even the right to subsistence plots,” in addition to rents for their land, or the fruit of the sale of his farm.
telescopic calendars
In addition, “on the reconstruction of careers, the MSA realizes that we are increasingly multi-pensioners, sometimes with contributions in three boxes,” he also explained to AFP before the session. 48 hours before the first round of the LR presidential election, this day dedicated to the texts of the right-wing group in the chamber also gives a political turn to the interior.
Éric Ciotti, who is a candidate for the head of the party, is preparing to defend, with little chance of success, a bill calling for the “creation of a court specializing in the expulsion of criminal foreigners.” Also a candidate, Aurélien Pradié, will bring a proposal for a court specializing in domestic violence, inspired by Spain.
None of these texts was adopted by the Legal Commission. But the meeting will be an opportunity for the two candidates for deputies to establish their credibility on issues that mark their conception of the right. The left opposition had not failed, in committee, to mock this telescope of calendars.
Just before lunch, the Assembly rejected a text by LR Mansour Kamardine (Mayotte) intended to “facilitate the conditions for the expulsion of foreigners who constitute a serious threat to public order.”
Source: BFM TV
