Paris (AFP)
The exchanges should last more than three hours: Emmanuel Macron goes to Rodez Thursday night for a "big debate" on pensions, taking again in Aveyron the format used to respond to the crisis of "yellow vests".
Last Thursday, the head of state had canceled this appointment at the last moment on the death of former president Jacques Chirac. This unforeseen postponement nevertheless allowed the executive to demine a little more this explosive subject, which has already provoked several days of mobilization.
According to an Elabe study published Thursday, 43% of French remain opposed to this reform (-1 point compared to the survey of this institute for Les Echos and Institut Montaigne of September 3, 2019), 32% are in favor (-1) and 24% neither favorable nor opposing (+2).
Sunday at Guidel (Morbihan), during the MoDem summer university, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe approved several safeguards enumerated by François Bayrou. Decisions already stated but on which we must redo pedagogy, according to Matignon.
Edouard Philippe validated the fact that the value of the pension point would be managed by an independent authority where the unions would also sit, that the benefits acquired would be preserved, including for the special schemes, and that the funds of the liberal professions regimes ( doctors, lawyers) would not serve to balance the entire system.
Thursday at 18:30, in a village hall in the center of Rodez, standing, microphone in hand, the head of state will launch the "wide consultation" organized until the end of the year on this reform presented as the most important part of the second part of the quinquennium.
The exchange should last at least three hours but could extend beyond, like those of the big debate post- "yellow vests" that had sometimes exceeded six hours.
- "You have to be a chef" -
With Jean-Paul Delevoye, the high commissioner for pensions who just entered the government, the president will respond to 500 readers of the three dailies of La Depeche group (La Depeche, Center-Presse and Midi Libre).
The moderator, Olivier Biscaye, editor-in-chief of Midi Libre, will also submit questions relayed by 20 titles of the regional daily press (PQR) and local television stations that will broadcast the debate live.
This is to "anchor the debate in the heart of the territories," says the Elysee. In Aveyron, one-third of the population is over 60 years old.
But after a year and a half of consultation with the social partners, Senate President Gérard Larcher fears that this debate is turning into a "praise of immobility". "At one point you have to be a leader, you have to decide," he urged Thursday, and Macron must "have the courage to talk about the age" of retirement.
For CGT Secretary General Philippe Martinez, the president will play "the teacher in a classroom".
Emmanuel Macron will have much to do to convince the usefulness and fairness of this ambitious reform that aims to merge into a single point system the 42 existing regimes, by 2025.
The government is facing a common opposition front. In addition to the events organized by FO and the CGT in September, lawyers, doctors and pilots also mobilized, as well as the police in force on Wednesday. Almost all RATP unions have announced a strike that can be renewed from 5 December.
According to the Elabe poll, the mobilization against the pension reform is approved by 65% of the French (35% support and 30% sympathy).
In Rodez, locked by the police, the CGT, the FSU, the Yellow Vests Union, LFI, the Left Party, the PCF and SUD in particular called for a rally at 17:30.
Emmanuel Macron will then be in Auvergne. He is expected to Clermont-Ferrand Friday night for the 100 years of the newspaper La Montagne, he will meet employees and will meet with business leaders in the region.
© 2019 AFP