He returns as a sea serpent: Emmanuel Macron has spent six years wanting to reform the pension system. As of 2017, a measure in this regard appears on his program during the presidential election. The future head of state then promises a systemic and non-parametric reform. It is a matter of suppressing the special regimes and not of shifting the starting age.
“After more than twenty years of successive reforms, the pension problem is no longer a financial problem”, can be read in particular on the candidate’s website.
“The challenge today is, therefore, not to delay the age or increase the contribution period”, it is also written.
“Hypocrite”
Once elected President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron did not return to reform until 2019. Time to let go of the crisis of the yellow vests that shook power. In accordance with his campaign commitments, the Head of State promises once again that he will not come of age.
“Changing it” “would be quite hypocritical,” he said during a press conference in late April.
“Good luck already to reach 62, that is the reality of our country,” said Emmanuel Macron.
Flip-flop at the end of 2019. The then Prime Minister, Édouard Philippe, evokes a “fundamental age” at 64, a parametric measure therefore, which should make it possible to balance the pension system in the future.
Mass demonstrations, strikes, and mistrust of the French followed, forcing the government to back down. At the same time, Jean-Paul Delevoye, then the high commissioner for pensions, was forced to resign amid conflicts of interest.
A project abandoned by the Covid-19
Before the start of 2020, Emmanuel Macron took the plate during his wishes to the French. Pointing out that this is a “moment” of the five-year period, when “normally”, “we give up acting energetically so as not to bother anyone in the face of the proximity of future elections”, the head of state shows his muscles: “It is the complete opposite it has to happen”, he urges, indicating that the pension reform “will be completed”.
The continuation? passed a bill 49.3 at the end of February 2020 in the face of parliamentary obstruction, in particular from La France insoumise, which slowed down the debates, then an abandonment of the text in the spring due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“This year will be the year of the pension reform”
It was only two years later, during the presidential campaign, that the pension reform reappeared. On BFMTV, the president is open to discussion about the age of departure. April 11, 2022.
“If there is anguish and rejection, I don’t want to divide the country. I am ready to discuss the pace and the limits,” he says.
However, Emmanuel Macron wants to leave quickly. the option of a reform by way of modification in the social security financing bill (PLFSS) is put on the table. Pressured in particular by his ally François Bayrou, the president nevertheless agrees to allow more time for consultation. The government is heading to a presentation of the project on December 15.
Then he changes his mind. Officially to exchange with the new presidents of the parties, such as Éric Ciotti or Marine Tondelier, but also because of the calendar: the holidays are approaching and the announcements on this subject, if they were revealed on the 15th, would be given before the semifinal. of the World Cup between France and Morocco.
At the end of the year, during his greetings to the French, Emmanuel Macron launched the battle: “As I promised you, this year will in fact be the year of a pension reform whose objective is to guarantee the balance of our system for the years to come. decades,” he urges. Only time will tell if 2023 will mark the end of six years of successive postponements.
Source: BFM TV
