After the Ségur de la Santé, the pension reform. Barely in office, the new Prime Minister Jean Castexcompte well put on the table this explosive dossier, which paralyzed the country for several months before the confinement ended the strikes. From Thursday, Jean Castex will receive the trade union and employers organizations to find "a method and a calendar". Meetings that promise to be tense, since as early as Sunday in the JDD the new tenant of Matignon warned not to believe "in soft consensus", while having the "concern of gathering".
"Refusing to talk about pensions would be irresponsible"
A course worthy of a tightrope walker, but the Prime Minister believes that "refusing to talk about pensions when the balance of accounts, and therefore the safeguard of the current system is compromised, would be irresponsible". A statement made Wednesday before the Senate when the deficit of the pension system should reach in 2020 the 30 billion euros, against four before the crisis, according to a provisional estimate of the Pensions Guidance Council (COR).
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A "provocation", according to the president of CFE-CGC
Despite everything, the confederation president of the CFE-CGC (French Confederation of the framework, General Confederation of the executives), François Hommeril, is far from sharing the opinion of the ex "mister deconfinement" of the government of Edouard Philippe. "I don't want anyone to talk to me anymore about this so-called universal point system which is bad," he insisted at the microphone of Europe 1 this Thursday. "What are we going to do this summer to settle a conflict that lasted for almost six months and which was fueled by the misunderstanding of a so-called consultation that had lasted two years before?"
While metropolitan France is barely emerging from the most serious health crisis in its history, François Hommeril considers that putting this subject back on the table "is neither irrelevant, nor a misinterpretation", but indeed a "provocation". For the president of CFE-CGC, "the issues before us are mass unemployment and economic recovery". And he is not the only one to think so: Sunday, the president of Medef, Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux, considered that it was necessary to "press pause" on the subject of pension reform,while safeguarding jobs and business competitiveness is the priority in times of coronavirus. "
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Prime Minister "super negotiator"
For his part, the general secretary of the union Force Ouvrière Yves Veyrier said he was "angry" Friday on Europe 1, and believes that "this is really not the time to put this file on the table". "We risk increasing the tension over a social conflict. We don't need it."
Faced with an outcry for ideological or calendar reasons, Jean Castex, who describes himself as a "man of dialogue and listening", intends to stay the course dictated by Emmanuel Macron. It remains to be seen whether his talents as a "super negotiator" will be sufficient in this matter, the mere mention of which stirs up tensions.