The controversial pension reform proposed by the Government of Emmanuel Macron continues to raise blisters in the French streets. The Labor Minister, Olivier Dussopt, justifies his controversial pension reform, against which a new day of strikes and demonstrations is being prepared next Tuesday, using the situation in Spain with a left-wing government as an example.
In an interview published today by Le Parisien, Dussopt – a former socialist who went over to the French president’s party – Emmanuel Macronse defends criticism that he is carrying out a right-wing reform, whose central axis is to delay the minimum retirement age of 62 years now at 64.
In the first place, it affirms that the last pension reform in France was carried out by the left during the presidency of the socialist François Hollande (2012-2017) and consisted of increasing the contribution period necessary to collect the full pension from 41 to 43 years, which “constitutes a reduced pension machine”.
He then notes that when one looks at France’s neighboring countries, “all” have their retirement age set at 66 or 67 years”. That is when he refers to Spain, which “has a social democratic government and a minister of Communist work”, alluding to Yolanda Díaz. “The retirement age -he adds in his argument with the Spanish example- has been set at 67 years for pensions well below ours”.
Beyond raising the minimum retirement age to 64, Dussopt’s plan is to keep the years necessary for a full pension at 43 or, failing that, retire at 67 so as not to have a penalty.
Unions and opposition, against
The pension reform is now being debated in the Senate, after having been examined in the first reading in the National Assembly during the month of February, and is against all the unions, as well as all the left-wing parties and the extreme right of Marine Le Pen.
An Ifop survey published this Sunday by Le Journal du Dimanche once again confirms that the majority of public opinion continues to oppose the reform: 68% of the people questioned reject it, while 32% declare themselves in favor.
The unions intend to “stop the country” next Tuesday with a mobilization that will seriously disrupt public transport, from planes to trains, including urban transport in many cities and even the circulation of highways with blockades in gitotos and of trucks.
Dussopt insists that the reform “is necessary and urgent for the balance of the system in 2030”, and that if it is not carried out and things continue the same, in the next ten years pensions will accumulate a deficit of 150,000 million euros and that will lead to “a drop in the standard of living of retirees.”
