On Tuesday, September 3, the High Commissioner for Pension Reform Jean-Paul Delevoye joined the government, alongside Solidarity Minister Agnès Buzyn, two days before the resumption of negotiations between the executive and the partners. on this potentially explosive issue. Jean-Baptiste Djebbari also joined the ranks of government, becoming Secretary of State for Transport.
A statement from the Elysee has formalized this appointment, announced earlier in the day by the interested party in an interview at the Voix du Nord. "It made sense that having started as High Commissioner, I continue my work as such," said former President of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE). "I keep the same team, the same place, to be the privileged interlocutor of the partners and to write the future law".
The presidency has also announced the appointment of the French parliamentarian La Republique en marche (LREM) Jean-Baptiste Djebbari as Secretary of State for Transport within the team led by Minister for the Ecological and Solidarity Transition, Elisabeth Borne.
This "technical" reshuffle takes place on the eve of the Council of Ministers and the government seminar at the Elysee.
Creation of a pension system by points
Promise campaign Emmanuel Macron, the bill on pension reform aims to create a universal system points "more readable and more equitable" in 2025 in which "one euro contribution gives the same rights".
Sign of the sensitivity of the subject - the various attempts at reform gave rise to important social movements and massive demonstrations in France in particular in 1995 and in 2003 -, the executive committed to a long consultation to define the parameters .
Just recently, the executive hoped to quickly finalize its text, to present it in cabinet at the end of the year and to vote in 2020.
But this calendar could be turned upside down by the "citizen consultation" which could spread over a year and which should serve to gather the opinion of the French on the tracks advanced in July by Jean-Paul Delevoye, after a first work consultation period of 18 months with the social partners.
Emmanuel Macron's position against the recommendations of Delevoye
A new round of consultations is scheduled for Thursday 5 and Friday 6 September in Matignon, between the social partners and an executive who is moving with measured steps to spare himself a new social crisis after the movement of "Yellow Vests".
Promising a "big negotiation" and a "big debate", Emmanuel Macron created the surprise last week by marking his preference for a compromise on the duration of contribution rather than age.
This position, contrary to the recommendations of Jean-Paul Delevoye, endorsed by Matignon, does not bury the idea of a pivotal age, said however afterwards the spokesman of the government. "The position of Emmanuel Macron is part of the debate," said Jean-Paul Delevoye in the columns of La Voix du Nord. "The law is written by walking, you have to consider that the solution is to be found between two".
"The confidence that the president shows me by my appointment shows in fact that we must relearn in France the culture of controversy," he continues. "The president is not bound by my report, he brings his clarification".
Reshuffle before the municipal?
A prominent figure in the presidential party since he joined the National Assembly in spring 2017, Jean Baptiste Djebbari will be in charge of Transport within Elisabeth Borne's team, which also includes Emmanuelle Wargon and Brune Poirson.
At 37, the elected official of Haute-Vienne, a former airline pilot, was the rapporteur of the draft law on the "new railway pact" in 2018 and was spokesperson for the LREM group in the National Assembly.
On August 21, Emmanuel Macron had expressed the wish, during a meeting with the Association of Presidential Press in Paris, to change his method in order to be better understood by the French, without necessarily changing his government.
With Reuters