“It’s too brutal”, François Rebsamen wonders about the timing of the reform
Romain Rouillard
changed to
11:05 p.m., January 24, 2023
We can be at the head ofa party belonging to the presidential majority while criticizing the pension reform, presented by the government. The mayor of DijonFrançois Rebsamen – former Minister of Labor of Francois Hollande – demonstrated this Tuesday on Europe 1. At the microphone of Raphaël Delvolvé, he questioned the moment chosen by the executive to present such a project.
“I think our society is in, there’s no denying it. People are coming out of three years of crisis, they are anxious, that’s understandable. There is the escalation of the war in ukraine but also the energy crisis. They are also worrying, on seeing it, by the climate crisis”, he appears. In a tense social climate, this pension reform risk, according to him, of fanning the embers. “Is it the time today to fracture society a little more? It’s a strange mania that this French mania of, every eight or ten years, presenting pension reforms that are said to be final and to start again eight or ten years later”, he judges.
A “double penalty”
And the criticisms of François Rebsamen do not stop there. The former PS senator also believes that the pace imposed by the government is too high. According to him, instead of acting to extend the contribution period from 2027, it would have been preferable to spread it over the long term as the former Minister of Health had done, Marisol Tourainein 2014. “It would have allowed us to have reformist unions which would perhaps have agreed to play the game. There, we can clearly see that this is crystallizing the country and I regret it at the current moment”, adds -he.
The mayor of Dijon then underlines the “double penalty” imposed on the French “between the strong acceleration of the Touraine reform and a starting age shifted to 64 years”. And to add: “These are life projects for people to retire (…) all that will be shifted. I find that it is very brutal. That’s why I’m making a proposal : postpone the application of this reform because there is no urgency”.
The mayor of Dijon thus suggests an entry into force for September 2025, and not 2023 as planned, “so that people have time to turn around”. “Imagine those who have to leave in September 2023, they will have to leave in January 2024. Ok, it’s not huge, but these people may have planned things. We have to take our fellow citizens into account. There is when even many people who are concerned”.