The French government on Monday pushed ahead with a pension reform plan that would raise the retirement age to 64, saying balancing the system’s books must be a top priority.
“Back at this point (of the age increase) will give up to take the system back in balance,” Minister of Labor Olivier Dussopt said after this rule was presented at the cabinet meeting, the last step before entering the parliamentary debate.
Protest against pension reform
In addition to gradually increasing the retirement age from 62 now to 64 by 2030, the bill would increase the minimum number of years people must pay into the system to get a full pension to 43 from the current 42.
Dussopt said the government “did not agree with the unions”, which were at the forefront of strikes and protests on Thursday where more than 1.1 million people took to the streets against pension reforms.
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The union is now preparing for another day of strike action on January 31, warning that it is ready to take action again if the government refuses.
Also read: France under attack over Macron’s pension reform plans
Ministers say the pension system will be in deficit of billions in the coming years and savings must be found to avoid expensive top-ups from general taxation.
He hopes to undercut opponents by using some of the savings from the reforms to pay for measures like a minimum pension of 1,200 euros ($1,300) a month, as well as an exemption to the minimum age for those who start working at a young age. .
– ‘Delete the text’ –
The minister must now shepherd the reforms through parliament, where he faces determined opposition mainly from the left.
Dussopt said that the government will accept amendments that “improve the text without giving up in order to balance the books in 2030, or the basis of the reform”.
Francois Ruffin, the main member of parliament in the far-left France Unbowed party, said on Sunday that his colleagues would not try to bury the debate with an avalanche of 75,000 amendments because it had been continued.
However, the group will present “a strong opposition that will allow us to take the text and the lies of the government,” Ruffin told broadcaster France 3.
He stressed that President Emmanuel Macron “is not carrying out this reform for economic reasons, for him it is about giving authority” in the country.
Macron himself reiterated on Sunday that pension reform had been part of his program in last year’s election, in which he won a second term as president but lost his parliamentary majority in legislative elections a few weeks later.
Now lawmakers in the beleaguered government are considering their own amendments.
“Our members of parliament will have the right to improve this reform,” the president’s Renaissance party leader Stephane Sejourne told Franceinfo radio Monday.
Also read: Macron’s reputation on the line with pension reform push
Support for pension changes appears fragile on the left wing of Macron’s parliamentary group and in his smaller allied parties, with former minister Barbara Pompili saying last week she “cannot vote for reform at this stage”.
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