on pension reform, “the government’s economic and social post-truth strategy is a failure”

by time news

Lhe presentation by the Prime Minister, in January, of the reform desired by the President of the Republic marked a surprising shift in macronism. While we could until then assimilate it to a method of enlightened government going beyond ideologies, the presentation of the reform played on several alternative truths. Thus the alarmist reading of the work of the Pensions Orientation Council (COR). So too with the affirmation of a reform ” just “, although most of the savings brought by the bill were to be borne by those who entered professional life young or worn out by it, left more quickly and by mothers losing quarters. The successive interventions of the members of the government on the random figures of the winners of the reform, in particular of the famous 1,200 euros, confirmed the new strategy of the power: an economic and social post-truth.

Also read the column: Article reserved for our subscribers Jean Garrigues on the pension conflict: “Beyond the Jupiterian presidency, it is our entire institutional edifice that is discredited”

Two months later, one thing is clear: this strategy – which, strangely, the executive has not yet abandoned – has failed. A failure which is also a form of scientific success. The interventions of academics helped to shed light on the debates by dismantling the arguments of the executive, by explaining the consequences of the measures contained in the bill or by comparing the French system with those prevailing abroad. Better still, tools that were once confined to the world of experts have emerged on the public square. This is particularly the case of life expectancy in good health, which makes it possible to highlight social gradients and therefore how raising the minimum age for payment of pensions is mechanically unequal.

Many media relayed these analyzes and carried out their own investigations. The trade unions have obviously played a key role, by combining this expertise with their own and by disseminating generally reliable information even in the workplace.

Thirst for information

At the same time, State clerks fulfilled their missions. Solicited by the media, the president of the COR, Pierre-Louis Bras (who had taken good care to organize, in 2021, a vast consultation of experts entitled ” Is the COR too optimistic? to adjust its projections), could not confirm the government’s dark budget scenario. Questioned by the co-president of the evaluation and control mission of Social Security in the Assembly, Jérôme Guedj, the direction of social security refused to endorse the figures that the Minister of Labor claimed to hold from his administration. The Dares, the studies department of the Ministry of Labor, did not hesitate to publish in March the results of the working conditions survey on the perceived sustainability of the work… In this landscape, the Secretary General of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Mathias Cormann, who on March 17 asked the government to “stay on your line” out of place; however – as the “Why Work at the OECD?” webpage boasts. » that the agents of this international institution, based in Paris, can liquidate their retirement after ten years of service, at age 63 without discount, and with discount… from age 51!

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