Paris (AFP)
Pension reform should not be able to be done by the end of Emmanuel Macron's five-year term and will then become a theme of the presidential campaign for a second term, LREM deputy Roland Lescure said on Thursday.
"It does not seem obvious to me" that it can be adopted by the end of the quinquennium, he acknowledged on France 2, in particular because the agenda of the remaining 18 months is loaded, between the need to " get the economy out of the rut "," to vaccinate everyone "," to vote "on the measures of the Citizen's Climate Convention and the law on republican principles.
But, while "the precarious jobs, those who are on the front line" during the health crisis, are "often the least protected", he recalled that the reform wanted by Emmanuel Macron "was intended in particular to ensure that everyone can have a decent retirement. And that will be part of the debates of the presidential campaign, "he said.
Likewise, "we will have a real political debate", which "can only be decided within the framework of the presidential campaign", on the recovery of "public accounts", "pension accounts" and debt, sealed by the consequences of the health crisis and the massive measures to support the economy, added Mr. Lescure, also chairman of the National Assembly's Economic Affairs Committee.
"One of the challenges I think of the presidential campaign will be how you pay, between the dreams of those who say you can cancel the debt with the back of your hand, and those, like us, who think you have to probably first to revive growth, "he explained.
The debate on the resumption of pension reform, postponed because of the coronavirus crisis, reappeared in early December in the majority after the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire considered that it should be an "absolute priority".
The President (LREM) of the National Assembly Richard Ferrand then estimated that this file would constitute an "excellent first reform of the second five-year term" for Emmanuel Macron.
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