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The pension reform opens a debate on social justice in France

2023-02-12T22:10:09.982Z


Emmanuel Macron promised to raise the retirement age in the campaign that led him to re-election in May 2022 and he intends to comply. Seven out of ten French people are against


When in France they talk about pension reform, they don't just talk about pensions.

It is seen these days with the hundreds of thousands of French people who take to the streets to protest against the increase in the retirement age from 62 to 64 years.

The question is never just economic and demographic, it is never limited to debating how to finance retirement in an aging society and in which life expectancy is increasing.

Because in this country, when you talk about pension reform, you also talk about other things: social justice, the quality of work, the right to rest (and even laziness).

By announcing, in early January, a plan to raise the retirement age to 64 by 2030, the French government opened the box of thunder.

The bill also contemplates bringing forward to 2027 the obligation to have contributed for 43 years to collect the full pension, a measure initially planned for 2035.

Four days of mass demonstrations have already been held, and more are planned.

On Saturday, 963,000 people, according to the Interior Ministry, and 2.5 million, according to the CGT union, took to the streets of cities and towns across France.

The fork is huge, but in both cases the trend is similar: more protesters than last Tuesday, but less than on January 31, the busiest day of protests so far.

Seven out of ten Frenchmen – left and right, young and old, rich and poor – oppose the reform.

In the National Assembly, supporters of President Emmanuel Macron so far lack the necessary majority to adopt it.

But they trust that the moderate right of Los Republicanos, historically in favor of this reform, will vote in favor, without taking anything for granted.

The Government's argument is threefold.

First, economic: the Prime Minister, Élisabeth Borne, warned at the beginning of the debate that, without the reform, the additional deficit of the pension system would rise to 100,000 million euros in the next decade.

Second, demographic: in the 1970s, there were three active workers for every retiree;

in 2000, two;

now 1.7;

in 2040 it will be 1.5.

And third: political.

Macron promised to raise the retirement age in the campaign that led him to re-election in May 2022, and he intends to comply.

Beyond economic and geographical criteria, his credibility as a reformist president is at stake.

The detractors of the reform — unions, left, extreme right — reply, to the economic and demographic arguments, that the urgency is false.

In 2021 and 2022 there was, in fact, a surplus in the pension system.

Some economists point out that the deficits forecast for the next few years are far from alarming and that France could take more time to reform the system in a consensual way.

Others slip the suspicion that Macron does not reform pensions for any other need than to meet the European Union's deficit and debt criteria: Brussels' fault.

Protest in Paris on January 31 for the reform proposed by Macron.DPA via Europa Press (DPA via Europa Press)

But the argument that has gained the most attention is another: that of social justice.

By forcing the French to work two more years, those who will notice it the most will be those who entered the labor market younger, who tend to have more precarious and physically exhausting jobs.

Those who entered late —because they prolonged their studies and thus had more chances of having better paid and more pleasant jobs— will notice it less.

Others affected: women with careers interrupted by maternity leave and periods of inactivity, although much of this problem already exists and is the result of inequalities in the labor market and not of this specific reform.

Another weak point: those over 60, who already have difficulties finding a job or lose the one they had.

The Government does not deny that there are alternatives to working two more years, but believes that it would be a mistake to resort to them.

These alternatives are raising taxes, taking on more debt or reducing the level of pensions.

The average amount of pensions for residents in France is about 1,509 euros gross, 1,400 euros net.

France, governed by a president whom the opposition on the left and the extreme right sometimes accuse of being ultra-liberal, is the OECD country with the highest social spending and the third in terms of spending on the pension system.

Under Macron, spending has not been reduced, and with the pandemic and the anti-inflation measures, rather the opposite has happened: the French economy has become even more socialized.

But the president is reproached for having reduced taxes for the richest with the partial abolition of the wealth tax and for maintaining the general refusal to raise taxes as a dogma.

Pensions, in France, are only part of the problem.

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Source: elparis

All business articles on 2023-02-12

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