Public Accounts Minister considers it "unrealistic" to return to retirement at 62

Public Accounts Minister Amélie de Montchalin said on Monday, March 17, that it was "unrealistic" to restore the retirement age to 62, a possibility dismissed the day before by Prime Minister François Bayrou.

"Retirement at 62, with the framework that has been set to return to balance in the pension system in 2030, it's not that we're saying that it's finished or not finished, it's just (that) it's not realistic," declared Ms. de Montchalin on Europe 1 and CNews, while the Minister of the Economy Eric Lombard affirmed Sunday evening that it was "up to the social partners to
decide".

On Sunday, François Bayrou clearly closed the door on a return to the retirement age of 62, compared to 64 under the current law, jeopardizing the future of the "conclave" on the 2023 reform with the social partners.

Seeking to avoid censure from the Socialist Party, in January he reopened the issue of the reform led in 2023 by Elisabeth Borne, then Prime Minister, and entrusted the social partners with the task of trying to reach a new agreement.

Consultations began on February 27, with unions and employers expected to meet every Thursday at least until the end of May. François Bayrou has pledged to submit any possible agreement, even a partial one, to Parliament for consideration.

"What the Prime Minister is saying is that the social partners hold all the cards," said Amélie de Montchalin, denying that the conclave was a means of avoiding government censure.

"We had a parliamentary debate on pension reform in 2023 (...) which led to a reform. We saw that this reform, collectively, had not exhausted the debates that society had with itself on long careers, on arduous work, on equality between men and women," she added.

"What the Prime Minister said was that we will establish a framework because we cannot worsen the deficit," she continued, assuring that she had "confidence in the social partners."

But while France's public finances are in dire straits, she warned that "if we allow the debt to increase (...), it means we are losing our ability to be a power, we are losing our sovereignty." Against this debt, she advocated, in particular, "working more."