Paris (AFP)
After a long time immersing himself in Emmanuel Macron's campaign promise, Edouard Philippe is at the forefront of defending the pension system over a strike that promises to be tough and ongoing.
Obviously, the parallel is tempting: in December 1995, the Prime Minister Alain Juppé yielded to the pressure of the street and abandoned his "plan" which included a lengthening of the contribution period. And here is 24 years later his disciple, Edouard Philippe, on the eve of a movement of magnitude, this time against the elimination of special diets.
The context is however different: the measures Juppé had not been announced during the presidential campaign of Jacques Chirac, elected six months earlier on the theme of the "social fracture", while the creation of a new universal system by points was one of the markers of that of Emmanuel Macron ... to which Edouard Philippe did not participate!
The Prime Minister had to take ownership of this total overhaul of the system, he who at the right wing primary in 2016 had campaigned behind Alain Juppé for a postponement of "the legal age of departure to 65 years," erected in " priorities "according to the former mayor of Bordeaux.
While High Commissioner Jean-Paul Delevoye was conducting an extended consultation before delivering his report in mid-July, Mr. Philippe devoted his Sunday afternoon of spring, with some ministers, to "enter" into the subject, " the technique, the options ".
While rumors of the alleged reluctance of Edward Philippe and burial of the reform periodically returned, the Prime Minister assured him in small committee: "I do not put myself in a situation where one does not make this reform" . "We will do it and 2020 is the right time," he said before the summer.
In the entourage of Emmanuel Macron, it is also recalled that Matignon is fully in the maneuver: "the president asked the Prime Minister to carry the reform, he gave him a clear mandate".
"He knows that this is a work that takes a lot of bandwidth, requires fingering, whose political, technical, financial components are huge.He is keen to succeed because he has no alternative", underlines a close friend of Mr. Philippe.
The road is no less steep on this high-risk file, in which Mr. Philippe is making no fuss.
- "Less steep" -
Leaving to maintain the impression of vagueness, even of cacophony, when divergences emerge within the government in particular around a crucial question: how to articulate, alongside the structural reform, management measures, called "parametric", allowing to reduce the deficit of the current system (between 8 and 17 billion in 2025)? Three levers, all sensitive, exist: the level of pensions, that of contributions and the age of departure.
For the Prime Minister, "everything is held" says his entourage. Clearly: we must tackle the deficit as well as the system as a whole. Others around Emmanuel Macron plead to delay the reduction of the deficit, so as not to interfere with the reform.
A debate that gives rise to a recurring criticism addressed to Mr. Philippe and summarized by an actor at the heart of the issue: "the angle of Matignon is purely budgetary," he squeaks.
Around Mr. Philippe, we rather praise the relaxation of his style, more open to consultation and far from the attitude "right in the boots" that had cost his reform to Mr. Juppé. "We're still less stiff, no," says one of his friends smiling, observing that the sequence of "yellow vests" has also produced its effects.
It is therefore this ability to navigate in the face of "strong and long blockages," says a consultant, who will now be tested.
On Thursday, Mr. Philippe will show that he is on the bridge in front of the strike movement. "It will be seen because he wants to send a signal to the French: beyond the reasons of the strike and social protest, the government is hard at work to help them," said his entourage.
© 2019 AFP