Co-founder of En Marche with Emmanuel Macron, Astrid Panosyan-Bouvet succeeds Catherine Vautrin, who also held the position of Minister of Health. At 53, this is the Parisian MP’s first ministerial post.
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A number of thorny issues await the new Minister of Labor and Employment, the Macronist Astrid Panosyan-Bouvet, who will have to manage sensitive issues such as pension reform and unemployment insurance.
The burning issue of pension reform
The new minister will immediately be confronted with political and social protest over the pension reform, namely the postponement of the legal retirement age to 64, which has been gradually being implemented since last year. In the Assembly, the National Rally and the New Popular Front want to repeal this text.
Several unions support this request for repeal. The CGT, Solidaires and the FSU are calling for a day of strikes and demonstrations in ten days, on Tuesday 1 October. The CFDT, for its part, is calling for the text to be suspended before rethinking the pension system.
The Prime Minister has already seemed to give a roadmap: just after his appointment, Michel Barnier said he wanted to reopen the debate on the reform, to improve it for the most vulnerable people. But what room for maneuver will Astrid Panosyan-Bouvet have? Head of State Emmanuel Macron is keen on this key reform of his presidency.
Unemployment compensation, employment of seniors, salaries
Co-founder of En Marche after a stint in the ranks of the PS in the 2000s, the new minister will also have to look very quickly at unemployment insurance because the current rules are valid until the end of October. The government will have to maintain or reform them. Gabriel Attal, the former Prime Minister, tried this summer to reduce the duration of unemployment benefits. Astrid Panosyan-Bouvet had criticized this project, which was then swept away by the dissolution.
In recent months, she has also made proposals on the employment of seniors, another major project in the wake of the pension reform. How can we encourage companies to hire or keep their employees over 55? The Macronist has mentioned a “give and take” approach that echoes an insistent demand from unions: to establish conditions for aid to companies. Some union executives therefore think “to be able to find common ground”, with the new minister, if she has a free hand.
Finally, the woman who has worked in high positions in large companies will have to take charge of the issue of the minimum wage and low salaries. An issue at the heart of the debate in recent months.