Pension reform: the French show their distrust

If the government appears to have softened its wine on the very sensitive future pension reform, the reception from the French will be icy. And this, regardless of these announcements.

According to the latest edition of the Barometer* of the economy prepared by Odoxa for Agipi, challenges and BFM Business, 85% of the French are still strongly opposed to any postponement of the legal retirement age. Remember that the track provided by the government is a deferral to 64 years.

74% expect (unlikely) maintenance at age 62 while only 16% say they are in favor of said deferment at age 64.

A figure that rises to 26% for a postponement at age 63 as the Republicans desire and that drops to 13% for a postponement at age 65.

Only 38% of the French would be willing to accept a postponement beyond the age of 62.

Finally, all deferrals combined (63, 64 or 65) only 38% of the French would be willing to accept a deferral of more than 62 years.

Why this mistrust? The French are quite skeptical about the reasons given by the government to justify this reform.

Thus, if one in two French people (49%) thinks that, in principle, a pension reform could “be necessary to guarantee our pay-as-you-go pension system”, on the other hand, a clear majority (58%) do not believe that such a reform is “necessary to reduce public deficits”.

Worse still, the French do not trust the government to carry out an “effective and lasting” pension reform (71% mistrust) and even less to carry out a reform that is “socially fair” (72%).

This future reform feeds in any case the melancholy of the French, already depressed by the effects of inflation. Thus, 78% of those surveyed still do not have confidence in the future of the economic situation in their country (stable figure compared to the wave of December).

*: Survey carried out on a sample of French people interviewed via the Internet from January 4 to 5, 2023. Sample of 1,005 French people representative of the French population aged 18 and over. The representativeness of the sample is ensured by the quota method.