Despite the opposition of unions and employers to reopen the pension file, the new Prime Minister Jean Castex, barely appointed, relaunch without waiting this flagship reform of the quinquennium. No longer simply to introduce more equity and social justice, which was the initial presidential promise, but indeed to safeguard the system, whose deficit should rise following the epidemic to 30 billion euros from the end of the year. "Refusing to talk about pensions when the balance of accounts, and therefore the safeguard of the current system is compromised, would be irresponsible," he argued in the Senate on Wednesday.
Very determined, the head of government began to receive the social partners individually in Matignon on Thursday, in the presence of the new Minister of Labor, Élisabeth Borne, who recovers within this perimeter this explosive file. Discussions are expected to close this Friday afternoon. Then a meeting, where the social partners will all be brought together collectively, is scheduled " before July 20 ", probably next Friday.
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If they appreciated the " very direct and very frank " style of the new Prime Minister, the social partners do not want to reopen this dossier when their priority is above all economic recovery and employment. “ This is not the subject of summer and fall . The CFDT does not practice the empty chair, but if the government opens consultations on pensions this summer or in the fall, we will not really invest in it, "said Laurent Berger, secretary general of the CFDT, yet alone union in favor of the reform.
Strike on September 17
" We have clearly said to the Prime Minister that the question of pensions should not pollute the issue of recovery ", he insisted, stressing that "the priority today is jobs " . For unions hostile from the start to the reform, opposition remains total. " This is really not the time, " said Yves Veyrier, secretary general of FO. " We told him that it was an explosive subject that was going to divide the country. If he starts his mandate with this kind of situation, it does not bode well for the future , ”reacted Philippe Martinez, his CGT counterpart, spearhead of strikes this winter, the longest that France has known. The protesting union is already calling, without knowing the Prime Minister's conclusions, for a national day of mobilization on September 17.
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Same refusal from the employers' side, yet favorable to the reform even if he was not asking for it. “ Rushing this summer to renegotiate around this anxiety-provoking subject is not the priority. The priority is the recovery plan , reacted the president of Medef, Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux. Let's discuss at the start of the school year, but with up- to-date figures , concerning the deficit of the current system. " We must go into pause mode ," added François Asselin, president of the Confederation of Small and Medium Enterprises (CPME).
But pension reform has become a totem. Politically, it will be very difficult for Emmanuel Macron to stand for re-election in 2022 without having left his mark on this major issue, which was to be the emblematic reform of the quinquennium. The opposition has understood this and made it an argument. Reopening this file is " a political mistake ," said the boss of PS senators Patrick Kanner. In the period which is ours, where we need to reassure the French, to accompany them, to have a spirit of concord for the reconstruction of the country, it is a red cloth that we are again in the process of shake ”.
Right, MP LR Éric Woerth, prime contractor for the 2010 pension reform (which raised the retirement age from 60 to 62), believes that the reforms that have been made must be continued , but that this implies " difficult decisions and political courage ". But the President of the Republic "does not have the political capacity for this reform, " said Christian Jacob, the president of LR, pointing to the recent " failure at the municipal level " of the majority.
Political courage
Finally, this sequence validates the strategy of Edouard Philippe a posteriori. The former Prime Minister has continued to hammer for the past year the need to " work harder " to restore the financial balance of the pension system, without transferring the debt to future generations. The explosion of deficits proves him more than ever right. But the divided executive lost time, reluctant to impose a parametric (that is to say budgetary) reform, after having promised during the campaign a purely systemic overhaul (in substance). The subject returns today in boomerang, in urgency.