Four days after the presentation of the pension reform, and while a day of strike and national mobilization is scheduled for Thursday January 19, Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne spoke on France Inter this Saturday, to defend and justify the decisions which will mark his passage to Matignon.
"Obviously we can always challenge, but the system is in deficit", she insisted from the outset. If she wants to perpetuate the pay-as-you-go system, it is because it is "one of the pillars of our system social, which shows solidarity between generations”.
“The heart of our pension system lies between the balance between the retirement age and the duration of contributions.
I think that we are carrying out a reform of justice, and balance and progress”, advances the Prime Minister, and it is “all this work, all these consultations” with the trade union organizations which made it possible to lead to the text which will be proposed to Parliament.
Read alsoPension reform: retirement age, special schemes, exceptions… our answers to your questions
This gives, for the moment, a legal retirement age pushed back to 64 for people born on or after January 1, 1968, the acceleration of the schedule for extending the contribution period (43 years in 2027), the abolition of special schemes and a minimum pension raised to 85% of the minimum wage for all retirees, current and incoming, which should benefit two million people.
“The poorest 20% of French people are those who are least asked to work longer.
I cannot let it be said that the reform penalizes modest people, it is exactly the opposite, ”she said.
.@Elisabeth_Borne: "The poorest 20% of French people are those who are least asked to work longer. I cannot let it be said that the reform penalizes modest people, it's exactly the opposite."
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– France Inter (@franceinter) January 14, 2023
The disputes are already numerous.
While strike calls have been launched and the risk of blockage looming, particularly in the oil sector, as at the start of the fall, Elisabeth Borne says she is not afraid of the mobilizations.
“I am going to work to convince the French”, she says, to convince them “that we have been attentive to all the particular situations, that this reform is fair and that it allows social progress”.
.@Elisabeth_Borne: "The consultations were very useful, my objective today is to convince the French that we have been attentive to all the particular situations, that this reform is fair and that it allows social progress. "
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– France Inter (@franceinter) January 14, 2023
This does not mean, she assures us, that the dialogue is broken with the unions.
Moreover, she argues, the discussion with the CFDT "allowed us to alert ourselves to the particularity of those who in the 1980s did work of collective utility, the famous TUC".
“We are looking for compromises, majorities, agreements”
Will she use a constitutional provision to override Parliament, as she has done several times in recent weeks for finance laws with 49.3?
"I heard that each member of the Nupes will table 1,000 amendments, I fear that will not advance the debate," she slips.
"On this text as on all those carried by my government, we are looking for compromises, majorities, agreements", as evidenced by the text on renewable energies, approved at the start of the week with voices from the left in particular.
“We are in the process of bringing together the conditions so that this text can be voted on”.