The pensions file promises to be thorny and the Prime Minister is well aware of it.

Elisabeth Borne delayed again, Tuesday, January 3, on the postponement of the legal retirement age to 65, which she does not want to make "a totem" before her final talks with the social partners on the controversial pension reform.

A majority of French people are opposed to this reform, in the flammable context of purchasing power eroded by inflation.

But Emmanuel Macron remains determined: “this year will be that of a pension reform” applied “from the end of the summer”, he hammered on Saturday during his vows.

The postponement of his presentation from December 15 to January 10 allowed the head of government to hear again, before Christmas, the political groups then, Tuesday and Wednesday, the social partners.

The pension reform will then be presented to the Council of Ministers on January 23.

🗣 Pension reform ➡️ "These consultations are useful", assures Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne. "Each time, we listen to questions, observations and remarks."

"Discussions continue. 65 years old is not a totem."

pic.twitter.com/5r1TjFpgti

— franceinfo (@franceinfo) January 3, 2023

However, all the unions and most of the opposition are contesting the executive's plan to gradually postpone the retirement age from 62 to 65.

The Prime Minister seemed to temper the government's position on the age measure on Tuesday.

"We carried the 65 years" but "it is not a totem", declared Élisabeth Borne on franceinfo, adding to study "other solutions which make it possible to achieve our objective", namely "the balance of the system retirement by 2030".

On the other hand, the government will not go "beyond 43 years of contribution for a full pension", as already provided for by a previous reform.

Similarly, "the age of cancellation of the haircut (...) will not change, it will remain at 67," she added.

🗣 Pension reform ➡️ "I say it clearly: we will not go beyond the 43 years of contribution provided for in the Touraine reform to have a full-rate pension", says the Prime Minister. of the haircut will not move.

He will remain at 67.

pic.twitter.com/Qg7cEaAcMO

— franceinfo (@franceinfo) January 3, 2023

Some 54% of French people are against pension reform

The reform will take into account "long careers, choppy careers, the difficulty of certain tasks", it will "balance the financing" of the system and "improve the minimum pension", Emmanuel Macron argued on December 31 .

The executive hopes at least, thanks to the measures on the arduousness, an "absence of frontal opposition" of the CFDT, underlines an adviser.

But some 54% of French people are against this reform, according to a Harris-Interactive poll conducted at the end of December and published on Monday.

"There are only retirees, those aged 65 and over, who declare themselves in favor", notes Frédéric Dabi, director of the Ifop institute.

🗣 "My only crime is being 58": Eric questions Elisabeth Borne on the unemployment insurance / pension reform scissors ➡️ "My project for job seekers is to support them so that they can find a job,” said the Prime Minister.

pic.twitter.com/VWlVPRXkVD

— franceinfo (@franceinfo) January 3, 2023

Elisabeth Borne nevertheless hopes to join Les Républicains, in favor of postponing the starting age.

To this end, it must exchange with their president Éric Ciotti, as well as with the leaders of LR groups in the Assembly, Olivier Marleix, and in the Senate, Bruno Retailleau.

Without LR, the government, which only has a relative majority, would be forced to use Article 49.3 of the Constitution, which allows the adoption of a text without a vote.

Any "age measurement" will be a "red line"

For the first time in twelve years and the Woerth reform (which raised the legal age from 60 to 62), all the unions are ready to mobilize together against the announced reform.

Including the CFDT, on a firmer line since its last congress.

Any "age measurement" will be a "red line", repeated his boss Laurent Berger in La Dépêche du Midi, who pleads for a ten-point increase in the employment rate for seniors to make up for the deficit.

It is through mobilization "in the street" that it will be possible to "roll back" the pension reform, warned, Monday, the new boss of Europe-Ecology-The Greens, Marine Tondelier.

"It's going to heat up in January," predicted the founder of La France insoumise, Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

>> To read: The unions on a war footing before the presentation of the pension reform

Frédéric Dabi still sees "a context of 'gilets-yellowing'" of French society, with "work that pays poorly", a "feeling of decline" and "inflation that did not exist in 2018".

"The seeds of a social explosion are there" and a "spark could ignite everything", he warns.

Reforming pensions in France "is always very complicated", moreover in a climate "marked by strong tensions on purchasing power" and wages, underlines Jérôme Fourquet, Opinion director at Ifop.

An exercise all the more delicate at a time when the government presents other disputed texts, in particular on immigration and renewable energies.

With AFP and Reuters

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