“Yes, we must do this reform.” A guest on TF1 this Saturday, Emmanuel Macron confirmed his desire to raise the legal retirement age as part of a reform that is currently being discussed between the government and the social partners and whose exact content will be revealed in mid-December.
“If we don’t do it, we endanger the pay-as-you-go pension system. All serious studies show it. The Pension Monitoring Committee has shown this very well: the financing needs are massive and will continue to increase in the coming years”, said the Head of State.
“Work Some More”
According to him, “the only lever we have” to restore the financial balance of the regime “is to work a little more.” “And it turns out that when we compare France with all its neighbors, we have a margin. We are not the country with the (highest) legal age or the longest contribution period,” Emmanuel Macron said, adding that the reform had to be “effective and fair”.
Emmanuel had already defended during the presidential campaign a postponement of the legal age from 62 to 65, before evoking once re-elected a drop to 64, added to an increase in the contribution period. A measure justified by the prospect of a lasting return to the deficit, which would exceed 12,000 million euros at the end of the five-year period, and by its refusal in principle to increase contributions or cut pensions for retirees.
Since September, the government and the social partners have been discussing the pension reform. In addition to raising the legal retirement age, the bill also provides for the establishment of the minimum pension at 85% of the net minimum wage and the abolition of special regimes for new entrants.
Source: BFM TV
