After visiting the veal cutting professionals, the Head of State defended a pension reform which “allows to create more wealth for the country”.
He relies on “common sense” the French. Emmanuel Macron, visiting the market of national interest in Rungis (Val-de-Marne), repeated on Tuesday February 21 that he “have to work a little longer”. This trip is his first outing in direct contact with the French since the launch, at the beginning of the year, of his highly contested pension reform. “Overall, people know to work a little longer on average”said the head of state.
Emmanuel Macron arrived at Rungis at dawn. The Head of State began this ritual visit to the largest fresh produce market in the world around 5:30 a.m., accompanied by the Minister of Agriculture, Marc Fesneau, and the Minister for SMEs, Olivia Grégoire. Between the stalls of wholesalers in poultry, tripe or veal cutting professionals, the president responded to questions about his pension reform. This flagship project of its second five-year term, which provides for a decline from 62 to 64 years of the retirement age, arouses hostility in the street as in Parliament.
“A Debate on Labor”
“Listening to our compatriots, if we don’t work longer, what are the other two ways to do it? Take more money from those who work? Contributions? I didn’t understand that people wanted it, they want to earn a better living. Lower pensions? I did not understand that retirees lived well and had the possibility of lowering them”, did he declare. Emmanuel Macron also defended a “reform [qui] creates more wealth for the country”, because “if we have more hours worked, you reindustrialise more”, a means according to him “to finance education or health”.
“I believe in work”hammered the president, saying that “all the reforms we are doing are moving in that direction”. He also responded to a veal cutting professional who complained about the labor shortage and felt that there was “too much social”. “People, they sleep, they don’t want to get up at 2 in the morning”annoyed the butcher. “I do not believe that we need less social: work must continue to pay morereplied the head of state. The real debate that we must have in our society is a debate about work.”