Consultations are continuing at Matignon on pension reform. The government is hoping for support from the right. Yet behind the scenes, some Republicans are hesitating, even if it means contradicting their historic promises.
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Pensions are THE right-wing issue par excellence, advocated for decades in the name of budgetary rigor. During the last presidential election, Valérie Pécresse promised (unsurprisingly) to postpone the legal retirement age. Candidate LR even planned to pass this reform in a Social Security financing bill, an idea very close to the current government project. You would think that the planets are aligning, that the Republicans finally have the chance to push their plan… except that many feel trapped.
The right has said so much that it was necessary to make this pension reform that it would be difficult for it to turn on its heels. Emmanuel Macron knows this well. A minister nods: “They won’t be able to back down.” There is even a scenario where it is the senatorial right that could table an amendment to launch the reform, thus preventing the government from getting wet.
The executive is perhaps rubbing its hands a little quickly, and probably underestimating the divisions on the right. Of course, many are calling for a reform to be voted on so as not to back down: “If we don’t vote for this text, we will pass for people who have no convictions”, explains an elected official. But a growing fringe warns. An LR deputy is annoyed: “Macron wants us to endorse the reform in order to then derive the political benefits”. This same deputy promises that he will not vote for this text.
The right could therefore not vote for a text that it deems necessary because not everyone agrees on how to reform pensions.
The totem on the right is the decline in the legal age. 65, 66, 67 years old … But many LR deputies now prefer the contribution period. This is not the historical line of the party, but it would be fairer in their eyes. “We don’t have to be prisoners of what has been promised during the last three presidential elections”, insists a member of the younger generation. Among these young deputies, we find Aurélien Pradié, one of the three main candidates for the presidency of LR. According to our information, he will present a pension reform counter-project within 15 days.
The pension file therefore finds itself in the middle of the power struggles at LR. What weaken the government’s projects.