The government will open a new cycle of consultation around the pension reform, with a view to adopting a bill “before the end of winter”, announced Thursday, September 29, the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, to AFP, after a working dinner of the presidential majority organized at the Elysee Palace on Wednesday evening. The objective remains “entry into force of the reform in the summer of 2023”, she recalled. Elisabeth Borne therefore asked the Minister of Labour, Olivier Dussopt, “to hire next week” negotiations with employers’ organizations and trade unions, as well as with “parliamentary groups”.
“We cannot reform the country without the unions”, justifies to franceinfo a parliamentarian close to Emmanuel Macron. Philippe Martinez, secretary general of the CGT, assures that his union will not go there “not long” if “it is to tell us that we are discussing the extension of the retirement age”. On the employers’ side, Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux, president of Medef, confirmed on Thursday: “We will obviously go to this consultation” and Medef will have “proposals to make”.
This new consultation will be carried out on the basis of Emmanuel Macron’s election campaign promises, namely the raising of the retirement age to 65 in 2031. The discussions will thus focus on the question of long careers or arduous work, special schemes, the employment of seniors or even “the financial equilibrium of the system”.
At this stage, the President of the Republic has therefore ruled out the use of an amendment to the Social Security finance bill (PLFSS), to have sincere consultations on the basis of his proposal for the presidential campaign, affirms a participant at dinner at France Télévisions. However, this option is not completely ruled out, says another participant. The executive reserves the right to use it, especially if the unions refuse the consultation announced by Elisabeth Borne.
In addition, Emmanuel Macron does not rule out dissolving the National Assembly to provoke new legislative elections, if the debates on pension reform do not succeed and a motion of censure is voted against the government, learned franceinfo with dinner attendees. What the Minister of Labor confirmed on Thursday morning, on LCI : “If all the oppositions came together to adopt a motion of censure and bring down the government, [Emmanuel Macron] would defer to the French and the French would decide and say what new majority they want. And obviously (…) we would be campaigning for the president to be comforted.”