The president of the Les Républicains group in the National Assembly listed several points that his party would like to see included in the pension reform project that the government has carried out to vote on it.
Republicans are “ready to support a reform” of pensions on “a few conditions” considered “essential” for small pensions and long careers in particular, head of deputies LR Olivier Marleix said on Tuesday.
Among those matters, “we hope that at some point the contribution period will prevail over the issue of age” and the LRs will be “very aware” of a system with long careers, he said during a meeting.
He also considered it “imperative” that the minimum pension, “announced at 1200 euros” per month, “is not only offered to future pensioners” but also concerns current pensioners.
Another point of vigilance: the “rhythm” of the reform, which must not be “brutal”, he argued, referring to “a quarter a year” to raise the legal age, “leading to 63 years at the end of the five-year period, with a review clause” and “aged 64 for the next five-year period”. The president of the LR party Éric Ciotti said he was ready at the weekend to “vote a fair reform” of pensions, which would be spread “over two five-year terms”. Finally, the money from the contributions “must only go to pensioners”, assessed Olivier Marleix.
Dissonance in the party?
Are there dissonances at LR about the advisability of voting for the reform? “We will wait to know the text” because “the devil can hide in the details”, warned the leader of the Republican deputies.
“We are united on the measures we have put on the table,” he added. “We undertake the defense of the distribution system”, which is “the DNA of our political family”.
“We are not potiches”, for his part, confirmed Lot Aurélien Pradié’s deputy, promising to “make sure that this reform is in the interest of the country”.
“If tomorrow we have a reform that upgrades small pensions, allows women’s pensions to improve and for those who started early leaving with only the contribution period, we will have got everything that is needed “, he said, asking for “those who started working before the age of 21 to be able to retire with 42, 43 annual contributions”.
The deputy of Pas-de-Calais Pierre-Henri Dumont emphasized the role of the LR in the bending of the text: “It is we who have softened the bill”.