The president-candidate also says he is willing to “open the door” to a postponement of the retirement age to 64 rather than 65.
«I am ready to discuss”. Emmanuel Macron wanted to be reassuring on Monday about his pension reform. A controversial measure for which he said he was open to a referendum, during an interview on BFMTV on Monday. “I am ready to discuss the rhythm and the limits”he assured, adding that he wanted a “new method” of consultation. “Clarifications are needed” on this reform, he further indicated.
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In addition, concerning the retirement age that the qualified candidate in the second round of the presidential election wishes to postpone to 65 years, against 62 currently, he said on Monday that he was ready to “to move” and “to open the door” to a postponement to age 64, “if there is too much tension” and “it can build consensus”. “I am ready to move the relationship to time and say that we do not necessarily make a reform until 2030 if I feel too much anxiety among people. Because we can’t say on Sunday evening ” I want to gather ” and when we go to listen to people say ” I’m not moving ””he underlined during a trip to Pas-de-Calais. “The 65 years are not a dogma”, he added, answering questions during a walkabout, also referring to a “review clause in 2027”.
“We only retained a magic numberof 65 years old who nevertheless “doesn’t happen until 2030”, also regretted the LREM candidate on BFMTV. Asked whether this figure could be lowered to 64, given the reluctance of the French, he replied in the affirmative. “I open the door very clearly (…) maybe if there is too much tension, we have to stop in 2027, and not preempt the rest” of the reform, he specified, knowing that his current project is to delay the retirement age by 4 months per year from 2023.
“Only for future generations”
Suspended in March 2020 due to confinement, the pension reform is defended as a financial necessity by the president-candidate in order to fill the deficit of the system. This new version will however bedifferent from that of 2017 because the macroeconomic conditions are not the same”, he promised in early April. Emmanuel Macron wishes to implement “a universal diet more simple” but this time “only for future generations”, which would include the abolition of the main special schemes and the consideration of long careers and the arduous nature of the professions. “People in the hardest jobs have to leave earlier“, he confirmed on Monday. He thus proposed, as in 2019, a system “individualized” with an analysis of the arduousness of the tasks that each has accomplished during his career. He suggested free Social Security checkups at ages 40 and 65 to assess it.
A departure at 62 for Marine Le Pen
Facing him, Marine Le Pen undertakes to maintain the legal age at 62 years maximum, while wanting to create a more favorable system for those who entered the working life at the youngest. During the campaign, other candidates had come out in favor of a decline in this starting age, like Jean-Luc Mélenchon. A proposal to which Emmanuel Macron responded: “If I was a demagogue and wanted to get elected, I would propose retirement at 60, but how do you finance it?“, he tackled on BFMTV.
Beyond the retirement age, Emmanuel Macron wants to improve the standard of living of retirees by promising to index pensions to inflation “from this summerand a floor, for full careers, set at 1100 euros per month. He is also in favor of a minimum pension of 85% of the minimum wage for farmers.
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