Posted 5 Feb. 2023 at 8:44Updated 5 Feb. 2023 at 9:32
Two weeks ago, during her greetings to the press, the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, assured that the debate on employees who started working early and who should contribute at 44 and not 43 had not been raised by the social partners during the consultations. Thursday evening again, during the program “The event” on France 2, questioned on the demands of the right on long careers, the head of government had not made an opening and referred to the parliamentary debate.
But this Sunday, in an interview with the “Journal du dimanche”, the day before the opening of the debates on the pension reform in the hemicycle at the Assembly and before a new day of mobilization on Tuesday, Elisabeth Borne makes an important concession to the right.
Do not resort to 49.3
The Prime Minister announces, therefore before the debates, that people who have started working between the ages of 20 and 21 will be able to retire at 63 and not 64, which was part of one of the insistent demands of the LR deputies but also raised questions among the majority.
“I hear their wish for those who started working early. We are going to move by extending this long career system to those who started working between the ages of 20 and 21. They will thus be able to leave at the age of 63, in accordance with the rules provided for by the system, ”says Elisabeth Borne. And the Prime Minister insisted, while the government absolutely needs the votes of LR deputies to pass the reform without resorting to article 49.3: “You see it, we hear their request. »
A cost of 600 million to 1 billion euros per year
This concession will cost, she assures, between 600 million and 1 billion euros per year and will concern, each year, up to 30,000 people. Elisabeth Borne, who recalls in passing that the government is carrying out this pension reform to “ensure the balance of the system by 2030”, indicates however that it will be necessary to “find ways of financing” for this measure, without, at this stage , give no details on the tracks envisaged.
What, hopes in any case Elisabeth Borne, to win the vote of the maximum of LR deputies and to pass a reform still very contested by the French. “I am convinced that the LR group will be consistent with what it has always worn,” she wants to believe.
In an interview this Sunday with the “Parisien”, the president of LR, Eric Ciotti, received again on Wednesday at Matignon by the Prime Minister with the leader of the LR deputies, Olivier Marleix, also assures that if the government meets the demands of LR on long careers, “this will make it possible to win a very large majority in the LR group. »
It is still necessary that everyone considers that this concession responds well to their request, when the head of government closes the door to the amendment of the deputy LR of Lot Aurélien Pradié on long careers, affirming that he “did not measure all the consequences of its amendment” because it would cost “10 billion euros.
Unification of social contributions
The Prime Minister also responds favorably to a request from the LR group and the Modem group for a review clause in 2027, saying that she agrees to “a mid-term progress report on the reform”. It also confirms that the government wishes, as requested by the Renaissance party, to “gradually” extend the senior index to companies with more than 50 employees, but also to introduce financial penalties for large companies that do not put in place “action plans for improvement” on the subject.
Finally, it indicates that the social contributions for conventional termination and retirement indemnities will be unified, “by fixing them at 30%”. “There must no longer be any incentives to separate from seniors”.
The head of government, on the other hand, makes no allusion to a request made, among others, by the CPME or Eric Ciotti in his interview with the “Parisien” for a reduction in contributions for the jobs of seniors. No new opening, either, on women.
Within the government in recent days the debates have been going well on when to give in or not to certain requests from LR. “We should not have had demonstrations, that we have made concessions and that in the end, we have neither the vote of LR, nor an effective reform”, warned an adviser from the executive.
Elisabeth Borne has therefore chosen to open up on long careers before the start of the debates in the hemicycle which are still likely to be stormy, what is more with a Minister of Labour, Olivier Dussopt, weakened by accusations of “Favouritism” in a public contract signed in 2009, which he rejects.