why Gabriel Attal is relaunching the agricultural pensions project

During a new series of announcements on Thursday, the Prime Minister announced that he wanted to “rework” the terms of the Dive law passed in 2023 on the calculation of agricultural pensions. An administration report consulted by franceinfo estimates that the law would create “losers”, particularly among the most modest.

“We will rework the current proposals” on the subject of pensions, announced Gabriel Attal, Thursday February 1, during his new round of announcements intended to respond to the anger of the agricultural world. The Prime Minister did not detail his remarks, but he refers to the bill from MP LR Julien Dive, voted on in Parliament in February 2023. This text, promulgated by the President of the Republic immediately, had the objective to increase the pensions of self-employed farmers, by calculating pensions on the basis of the best 25 years of activity, and no longer over their entire career as currently.

Farmers’ retirement pensions are indeed low. In 2022, the average pension for a self-employed farmer with a complete career was 864 euros gross monthly, according to the Mutualité sociale agricole (MSA). The text from MP Julien Dive was therefore particularly awaited. “Agricultural pensions are the lowest of all sectors of economic activity”, further underlined the boss of the FNSEA, Arnaud Rousseau, on January 22 on France Inter. Buthe law, which is due to come into force from 2026, is still awaiting implementing decrees.

A calculation that creates “losers”

Why does Gabriel Attal want to reverse a law passed a year ago, rather than speed up its implementation? The law provided for the submission to Parliament of a report “within three months”, to clarify the terms of application of this new pension calculation. Only here: a year later, the report has still not been made public. “There was a reform, (…) but a year later, we are still waiting for a government report on this subject”Arnaud Rousseau was annoyed on France Inter.

There is a good reason for this delay. As revealed by the Politico site on Monday, the administration’s report was not very encouraging. Consulted by franceinfo, this document studies various application scenarios for the reform, because the agricultural retirement system “is complex with, in particular, different functioning before and after 1992”explains Julien Dive to franceinfo. “We must therefore rebuild careers and, for this, we must establish a calculation scenario.”

The report thus gives its preference to one of the hypotheses studied, supposed to be the most favorable for farmers. But even in this scenario, the document admits that the reform will make “losers”in particular workers with the shortest careers, those who would liquidate their retirement with a discount and “lower quintiles”, that is to say the most modest. Therefore, the government had little interest in communicating about this report, in full anger of the agricultural world. “The timing would not have been good.”soberly recognizes a ministerial advisor.

A report “not in accordance with the spirit of the law”

Should we understand that the law passed in February 2023 was a bad idea? “No, the administration favored less attractive scenarios to kill my law”believes Julien Dive. “There are several calculation possibilities, but the ministry services have not studied everything. And those they describe create losers”mocks the elected official from Aisne. “It is therefore not in accordance with the spirit of the law. With the Mutualité sociale agricole and the FNSEA, we explained that there was another method of calculation which does not result in losers and which requires an effort from the ‘State.”

So what should we do with the conclusions of this report? “With Gabriel Attal’s statement on Thursday, the report can already be thrown out since we are starting from a blank sheet”believes Julien Dive. “We are reopening the field of negotiations and discussions with the MSA, parliamentarians and agricultural unions”, confirms the entourage of the Minister of Agriculture, Marc Fesneau. Julien Dive must also meet Gabriel Attal next week to discuss the matter and defend his position. “Either it’s the politician who chooses, or it’s the administration, but it’s time for choices”he warns.