EBetween 1 million and 2 million demonstrators marched on Thursday, January 19, against the pension reform at a time when the President of the Republic was beginning a tour on the European scene that would lead him to sign a treaty of friendship and cooperation with Spain, to announce a doubling of military credits at the end of its two mandates, and to try to display, alongside Olaf Scholz, the unity of the « locomotive » Franco-German. The coincidence of these two events is not fortuitous.
In the spirit of Emmanuel Macron, the raising of the retirement age, around which he has centered his re-election campaign in 2022, is not only aimed at balancing the pay-as-you-go pension system by trying to release 12 billion euros by 2030. It should make it possible to sustainably increase the volume of work in France, at a time when the country and its European allies are faced with the return of war to their doorstep and the Sino- American.
A signal to the market
The backdrop of the pension reform is both tragic and existential: the European Union runs the risk of being marginalized if it does not reinvest quickly and massively to defend its sovereignty in defense and industry. This is what the President of the Republic proclaims, who has positioned himself since 2017 at the spearhead of the European refoundation.
What Emmanuel Macron says less aloud is that, in order to sustain this role of watchdog and coach of the European cause, France cannot continue to widen its deficits and drag behind it a debt nearly 3,000 billion euros, which increases its vulnerability in periods of rising interest rates. “If they are not zero, our leeway for financing through debt, taxes or the redeployment of expenditure is too narrow to meet needs. This is the central economic problem of this five-year term and it will also be that of the following ones”notes, in his column of January 19 for The worldthe economist Jean Pisani-Ferry, after drawing up the list of urgent investments to be made in education, health, ecological transition, reindustrialization and defence.
Since the start of the school year in September 2022, Emmanuel Macron has been trying to acclimatize the country to the gradual extinction of the “whatever the cost” policy. ” The end “ proclaimed from “abundance” was intended to create public awareness. However, the need for protection remains so strong that large checks continue to be drawn by the State not only to invest, but also to cushion the effect of price increases on businesses and households. In this context, pension reform seems more essential than ever. It gives an indication to the European partners, it sends a signal to the market: to continue to invest, the country has found its room for manoeuvre, it will work more.
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