Trial and error or trial balloons? If Gabriel Attal repeated Thursday evening on BFMTV his wish to reform unemployment insurance, the Prime Minister has apparently changed his mind on the method used. After having mentioned at the end of March on 8 p.m. on TF1 a reduction in the duration of compensation for the unemployed, today of 18 months maximum, without
"going under 12 months"
, he is now finally leaning towards another lever .
In any case, this is what he declared in the “Face à BFM” program Thursday evening, on the occasion of his 100 days at Matignon. If he recalled the three existing levers - the duration of compensation, the condition of affiliation, i.e.
"how long you must have worked to receive unemployment insurance, it is six months in the last 24 months",
and the level of compensation - it is ultimately the second option which seems to be preferred.
“I announced that we would consult the social partners on this subject. This is what the Minister of Labor Catherine Vautrin will do, I asked her, in the coming days, the coming weeks, so that we can make this reform
,” recalled Gabriel Attal. And the Prime Minister points out
“a system which is organized for the multiplication of small contracts, short contracts, between which we benefit from unemployment: “I work for a few months, I receive unemployment for a few months, I work again for a few months, I receive unemployment “”
.
“That’s more what I want to work on, so it focuses more on the conditions of affiliation. Now the three possibilities are open and we will work on them with the social partners
,” concluded the Prime Minister.
“Encourage the French to return to work”
The youngest tenant of Matignon in the Fifth Republic also recalled that he had announced in March, even before the failure of negotiations between unions and employers on the employment of seniors, a reform of unemployment insurance from this year, with the aim of raising the employment rate in France.
“If we had the same employment rate as the Germans, we would have almost no problems balancing our budget
,” said Gabriel Attal.
“We have a collective interest in having more French people working
,” he added.
Thus, he reiterated that the unemployment insurance reform he wants aims
“to better support the French towards employment, and to encourage them to return to work”
. As for criticism, particularly from unions, of non-compliance with the government's commitments on adjusting the rules according to the economic situation, Gabriel Attal defended himself. First pointing out the drop in unemployment since Emmanuel Macron's first election, the Prime Minister highlighted economic forecasts, notably from the Bank of France, predicting
"a
fairly strong economic rebound
at the start of 2025"
.
“We need to have rules ready for this horizon, it is totally consistent with the idea of supporting when the situation deteriorates, and reviewing the rules when the situation becomes tense,”
he said. estimated.
Gabriel Attal's proposal does not convince the CFDT, France's leading union, which more broadly criticizes the spirit of the unemployment insurance reform desired by the executive. Judging that the objective of full employment was
"the fake nose presented by the government"
, the general secretary of the CFDT Marylise Léon judged this Friday morning on Franceinfo
"unacceptable"
and
"pure madness"
to
"continue to say to yourself that 'we must hit the most fragile'
.
“The government's objectives on unemployment insurance are to hit the most vulnerable, reduce their rights to recover money and pick the pockets of the unemployed to resolve part of the deficit issue
,” a- she insisted. Following the affiliation conditions mentioned by Gabriel Attal, Marylise Léon also invited the Prime Minister to
“go see the managers of companies who offer these types of
short contracts”.