Emmanuel Macron is firmly committed to pension reform and wants to pass it quickly. This follows from the discussion that he had this Thursday morning with the presidents of the groups of the presidential majority in the National Assembly as well as the members of the Finance Commission belonging to the majority, BFMTV learned from multiple attendees.
“Will we be able to do better in a few months? The answer is no,” the head of state said, according to comments reported by one of the deputies.
Emmanuel Macron “considers that the sooner we do it the better and that there will be no better political moment in six months, a year or two,” analyzed another participant.
A modification of the Social Security budget?
Although the Head of State has not yet specified how he intends to approve this reform, he could do so through a modification of the Social Security budget, which must be examined on September 26 in the Council of Ministers and in October by the deputies.
“He did not say it explicitly but de facto it means that,” commented one of the participants in the meeting, which lasted two hours.
Emmanuel Macron had already confirmed this Monday to the presidential press that he could carry out the pension reform, with a retirement age of 64 or 65, through this Social Security financing bill, which would perhaps mean a 49.3.
Relying on this bill would make it possible to demonstrate “speed” and “legitimacy”, but it could also have negative repercussions for the National Refoundation Council, a source close to the government said at the time.
49.3 “is not the solution”
But this Thursday morning, the president assured the deputies that resorting to 49.3 to approve this social security financing bill “is not the solution.”
“He insisted that this was not the solution, that it was rather necessary to build compromises. But if we were forced to draw it, we shouldn’t do it anyway and take into account the opposition’s amendments,” reported one of the Assembly members participating in the meeting.
Source: BFM TV
