PARIS: The French government said Tuesday it could be flexible on its plan to raise the retirement age to 65, part of a hugely controversial pension reform project pushed by President Emmanuel Macron.
Speaking ahead of crunch talks with unions that have fiercely resisted any change, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne told FranceInfo radio that the age of 65 is “not set in stone”.
She added that “other solutions” could help the government reach its target of balancing the pensions system by 2030.
She said the plan, a flagship domestic policy of Macron’s second term, would be presented to the cabinet on January 23 before being debated in parliament at the beginning of February.
The full details of the plan — whose banner policy of raising the retirement age from the current level of 62 has been rejected by the unions — are to be unveiled on January 10.
Macron’s overhaul would be one of the most extensive in a series of pension reforms enacted by successive governments on both the left and right in recent decades aiming to end budget shortfalls.
Edouard Philippe, a former prime minister, summed up politicians’ frustration at failing to manage a pensions breakthrough despite long-standing attempts.
“The English have their Ireland problem, the Americans their weapons problem, and we have our pensions problem,” he told AFP recently.
Philippe’s own attempt at pension reform when he was Macron’s prime minister between 2017 and 2020 was abandoned when the Covid pandemic changed the government’s priorities. A majority of French — 54 percent — oppose the reform, a Harris-Interactive poll showed on Monday.
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