The French Prime Minister François Bayrou has ruled out this Sunday that the Government will reduce the retirement age in France at 62 years for, he claimed, the precarious financial situation of the pension system.
Bayrou has been negotiating with unions and business federations for three months the review of the impopular 2023 pension law of President Emmanuel Macron, who gradually elevates the minimum retirement age from 62 to 64 years.
“Those who participate know the figures and there is already a deficit in the pensions of the private sector,” Bayrou said in an interview on Sunday on France Inter radio. “We are discovering that we do not have the means to do what we would like, because we do not produce as before and do not produce what our neighbors produce,” he lamented.
A report by the French state auditor, published last month, indicated that the deficit of the pension system is expected to increase considerably in the coming years. Without changes, the annual deficit will reach 15,000 million euros in 2035 and approximately double by 2045.
“We must, at all costs, maintain two debates: one about the private sector, with the requirement to return to balance by 2030,” Bayrou said. “And, secondly, ask ourselves what approach we can find for public sector pensions, so we can, over time, achieve a better balance in our public finances.”
Reopening the explosive debate on pensions in France was the main concession that Bayrou offered socialist legislators in January to prevent them from voting against their government for the budget.
The prime minister has promised that Parliament can work on the legislation based on any agreement that arises from the conversations, with the condition that the possible modifications do not deteriorate the financial balance of the system.
“On the question of saying ‘this is the age for all’, I do not think it is the only way out,” Bayrou said without presenting any specific alternative proposal and stationed in his place for his confidence in the participants in the conversations.
According to the Court of Accounts, maintaining the minimum retirement age in 63 years, instead of increasing it to 64 as planned, would exceed public finances of 13,000 million additional euros per year until 2035. On the contrary, increase the age at 65 years would mean an increase of 17.7 billion euros per year for that same year, according to data collected by Bloomberg.
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