This is the explosive file of this beginning of the year, in a context marked by high inflation. The pension reform, unanimously opposed by the unions, must be presented in detail on Tuesday January 10, for an application “end of 2023” according to the executive. During the presidential campaign, Emmanuel Macron wanted the legal age of departure to be pushed back by 4 months a year from the summer of 2023, up to 65 in 2031. “Discussions are continuing today, said assert Elisabeth Borne Tuesday morning on franceinfo. The President of the Republic said it […] during the presidential campaign, we carried out a reform with the retirement age at 65 years. It is not a totem I repeat. There are other solutions that can bring the system back into balance […] by 2030”. On the same plateau, the Prime Minister also assured him: “We will not go beyond the 43 years of contribution provided for in the Touraine reform to have a full pension. (…) No one will have to work for 47 or 48 years”.
The “Touraine reform”, many mobilize it in the public debate. Like, for example, Cyril Chabanier, president of the CFTC. “We know that we are going to go to 64 years with an acceleration of the Touraine law”, he declared on January 4 on BFM TV. Named after Marisol Touraine, the Minister of Social Affairs who implemented it under the Hollande five-year term, this reform came into force in 2020, after being voted in 2014. Intended to maintain the pay-as-you-go pension system and rebalancing it by 2040, it provides for the lengthening of the contribution period by one quarter every three years, to reach 43 years (172 quarters) for people born in 1973 or later.
Different contribution periods
If pushing back the legal retirement age to 63 or 64 is likely to attract anger, accelerating the implementation of the Touraine reform could represent a more subtle track for the executive. Concretely, the generations born before 1973 would contribute the same number of quarters, 172, while the Touraine reform provided for different contribution periods depending on the year of birth: 169 quarters from 1964, 170 from 1967, etc. Last November, the right-wing majority in the Senate voted for an amendment providing for the acceleration of the Touraine measures, during the examination of the 2023 social security financing bill. In this case, the increase in the contribution period “could be one quarter per year” mentioned Olivier Dussopt, the Minister of Labour.
Regardless of the form of the extension of work, the government will in any case face strong political opposition and a united trade union front. For the first time in 12 years and the Woerth reform – which had raised the legal age from 60 to 62 – the eight centers say they are ready to mobilize, and plan to meet shortly after the presentation of the project by Elisabeth Borne . “We are all determined that this law does not pass […]“, assured Philippe Martinez, secretary general of the CGT.