Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne will unveil the bill on Tuesday 10 January.
Each camp prepares to withdraw as the pension bill is announced: it is due to be announced on Tuesday 10 January by Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne in an explosive context. If the final arbitrations were to be underway, the hypothesis of a postponement of the legal retirement age from 62 to 64 years and not 65 years would lie in the pipeline with an extension of the contribution period, according to several media.
The President of the Republic, who plays big on this social aspect, is looking for a majority in the National Assembly to avoid another recourse to the “49-3” weapon. A deal with Les Républicains (LR) seems to be taking shape because their new leader Eric Ciotti, who has just been appointed, is ready to vote for it.
“I wish I could vote for a fair reform”
He believes in the Journal du Dimanche that Emmanuel Macron “in the midst of an economic and social crisis is proposing a reform which in the eyes of the French appears far too serious, the brutality of the reform must be reduced”. But the head of LR also explains that he is ready “to vote for a fair reform”. He believes that he has been heard by the government. He claimed retirement at 64 with a minimum of €1,200.
“The budgetary, demographic and economic situation is forcing this reform, so I want to be able to vote for a fair reform that saves our pay-as-you-go pension system,” he still told JDD.
But on the trade unions’ side, we don’t hear it that way, and they are ready to march and mobilize the streets. The general secretary of the CFDT Laurent Berger does not want this postponement to 64, as he believes that “the age parameter is the most unfair and the most anti-redistributive”, he declared to the Parisian.
A demonstration already appears to be planned, with the unions due to meet on Tuesday night to decide on a joint date, while the CGT has called for a parade on January 12 and Nupes intends to demonstrate in France on January 21.
“The French are worn out, tired, upset”
François Ruffin, deputy of the Somme and one of the leaders of Nupes, guest of the program “Quelle epoque” on France 2 Saturday night, protested: “Do you really think that the priority today is the pension deficit in 2040? coming out of two years of Covid -crisis, where the French are worn out, tired, agitated. We have the war in Ukraine, wages that do not rise at the same time as prices.
The government, for its part, would like minimum retirement, long careers or the difficulty of the professions to be part of the amendments discussed in the National Assembly from 6 February to the end of March. The management would like to see the pension reform come into effect in September.