Medef President "pessimistic" about the outcome of pension discussions

"We will negotiate in good faith and with a sincere desire to find an agreement, as we always do, but I am unfortunately pessimistic about the outcome of the discussions," he said during this interview.

At the initiative of Prime Minister François Bayrou, the participants in the pension "conclave" are tasked with reworking the 2023 pension reform, with the unions demanding the repeal of the increase in the retirement age to 64, while the government is demanding a return to financial balance for the system by 2030.

"A bad idea" and "an unfortunate initiative", castigates Patrick Martin, "taken within the framework of a non-censorship agreement with the Socialist Party, even though the majority of French people had resigned themselves to the reform", assures the boss of the bosses.

Patrick Martin sees in "the return to financial balance of our pay-as-you-go system by 2030", an imperative of the negotiations set out by François Bayrou in a letter to the leaders of employers' and union organisations, "the crux of the matter".

"All stakeholders must agree to subscribe to this perspective which seems to us to be common sense," explains the president of Medef.

However, in this context, Patrick Martin "finds it difficult to see how the target of a return to equilibrium in 2030 could be achieved if we call into question the 64-year rule".

But even in the event of a hypothetical agreement between social partners, the various actors would enter "terra incognita", believes Patrick Martin.

The text resulting from the agreement "would be intended to be transcribed into a text submitted to national representation" and would become subject to "parliamentary initiatives likely to call into question the compromise", explains the president of Medef.

The Court of Auditors estimated last week, in a report that should serve as a basis for discussions, that the deficit in the pension system should reach 6,6 billion euros in 2025, and "stabilize" until 2030 before widening further.