After the announcement, he defends his project. Visiting a L'Oréal factory in Rambouillet (Yvelines) this Thursday, Gabriel Attal once again justified his plan to reform unemployment benefit, presented this Wednesday evening on TF1.
The Prime Minister then mentioned his desire for a new “global” reform of unemployment insurance, with, as avenues, a reduction in the duration of compensation from 18 to 12 months maximum, the possibility of affecting the minimum time worked to benefit from unemployment, or even action on the “level” of compensation.
This unemployment compensation reform project “encourages activity”, assures the Prime Minister, the day after these announcements. He does not call into question the model of support for job seekers, according to him.
“Obviously we can end up with a hard blow, this is not only normal but it is fortunate in France that there is a model of solidarity,” he declared, alongside the minister of Labor Catherine Vautrin. But “I deeply believe that we can have a less expensive and more effective social model,” insisted Gabriel Attal, adding: “The more people you have working, the more revenue you have for our public policies. »
Attal attacks the opposition, “all allocations” party
The government is looking for savings after the public deficit skidded to 5.5% of GDP in 2023, according to INSEE. Or 15.8 billion euros more than the government's forecasts, which excludes increasing taxes.
The announcement of a reform of unemployment benefit triggered a wave of criticism from the opposition. Marine Le Pen, the leader of the RN deputies, denounced “a scam which has only one goal: to pick the pockets of the French to replenish the State accounts which are in deficit because of incompetence of the government ".
Read alsoUnemployment insurance reform: “unacceptable” for the CGT, the unions are up in arms after Attal's declarations
For his part, Gabriel Attal said he was “not surprised” by these reactions, tackling a “Mélenchon-Le Pen axis against reform”. “We do not discover that Mr. Mélenchon and Mrs. Le Pen, on questions of work and social issues, are one and the same party”, an “all benefits party”, with “the same fight against work”, said reacted the Prime Minister.
Asked about a possible turn in France towards austerity, Gabriel Attal refused to use this term. “It’s not our logic, it’s not our software,” he insisted. But, he recalled, “an over-indebted country is not a country free to make its choices”. “It is for my generation that I am leading this fight,” he continued.