"I saw (that) the Senate wanted to get things done on family policy and women's rights. I think the government will approach (this debate) with openness and willingness to engage to build a majority behind this text", continued the Head of State.
He also pointed out that the Senate, with a majority on the right, had in the past "several times carried reforms which were quite close to that of today".
In an interview with Le Parisien published on Saturday evening, the boss of the Les Républicains group in the upper house, Bruno Retailleau, indicated "wishing to vote (the text), after having modified it", in particular in order to "not widen the deficits, but manage to fill them".
“We intend to offer the government two options: either a 5% premium for mothers who have reached both a full career and the legal age, or an early departure at 63,” added Mr. Retailleau, also evoking the idea of an "end-of-career contract which would be exempt from family contributions" for employees aged at least 60.
The President of the Republic, who spoke on the sidelines of a visit to the Paris Agricultural Show, put an end to the media discretion observed since the beginning of the debates on the reform.
On the contrary, he defended his project at length, all day Saturday, to the many onlookers who questioned him on the subject, sometimes in a lively way.
"I did not find anger among our compatriots", he however assured, saying to perceive "concern".
"This is also what is expressed in the demonstrations on pensions: when we listen to people, it is not retirement, the subject. It is work and working conditions", continued Emmanuel Macron, considering that "a lot of people who demonstrate, it's the prospect of their career, it's + does my job pay me enough or not? +".
“There is a feeling of injustice”, he still considered.
© 2023 AFP