Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said in an interview with the JDD that she wants to continue her work at Matignon and believes it is possible, despite the pension crisis, to restore the dialogue with the unions she receives on Tuesday and Wednesday.
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For the past year, I have been working to provide concrete answers to the country's considerable challenges facing our country. I want to continue to meet these challenges, and I will put all my energy and determination into them," she said in this interview conducted at the end of a three-day trip to Reunion Island. "I have no doubt that some would see themselves in my place" but "moving forward is the only thing that matters to me," she adds.
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Asked about her Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin, to whom the ambition to settle in Matignon is regularly attributed, Elisabeth Borne praises "his personality, his career, his experience". Before adding: "He is very committed to his duties as minister."
"I'm listening"
Eager like Emmanuel Macron to turn the painful page of the pension reform, the head of government will receive Tuesday and Wednesday the unions. "Even after these turbulent months, I remain convinced that more room must be given to negotiation and social dialogue. That's why I didn't want to send a detailed agenda for these meetings: I am listening to the priorities that the trade unions and employers' organizations want to put in the discussion," she said.
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Everyone is perfectly aware of the importance of the issues: the prevention of professional wear and tear, the employment of seniors, retraining, the universal time savings account... In all these areas, I have no doubt that the trade unions and employers' organisations will wish to assume their responsibilities," she adds.
Elisabeth Borne is also very severe on the bill to repeal the postponement of the retirement age to 64, which will be examined in the National Assembly on June 8. This text is tabled by the small independent group Liot (Freedoms, Independents, Overseas, Territories) and raises hopes among opponents of the reform. "It is irresponsible to make believe that this bill could prosper! We are telling the French that not only are we not concerned about bringing the pension system back to balance, but, worse, that we are aggravating its imbalance!" she said. "It's serious to lie to the French," she adds.
If adopted by the Assembly, this text would continue a long and complex legislative process that makes its final vote highly uncertain. But it would still be a "political earthquake" and Emmanuel Macron should take it into account, said the president of the group Liot Bertrand Pancher.
