Pensions: dissatisfied with the forecasts, the power sees the devil in the COR

Haro on the COR. Criticized at the beginning of the year for having relativized the extent of the deficits to come, the organization attached to Matignon is today accused of exaggerating it.

Its annual report, officially presented on Thursday but the content of which was leaked at the start of the week, affirms that the pension system will be "sustainably" in the red from next year and therefore not in balance in 2030 as promised by the executive.

The response was not long in coming. "You can see that his assessments change every six months," slammed Bruno Le Maire on Tuesday. Saying to take these forecasts "with great caution", the Minister of the Economy targeted without naming him "the president of the COR" Pierre-Louis Bras.

This senior official marked on the left received the same day an arrow from Olivier Dussopt, who reproached him for having explained at the beginning of the year "that there was no fire on the lake, that the deficit would be line thickness.

The Minister of Labor visibly keeps in the throat the hearing, which has become famous, of Mr. Bras explaining in January to the deputies that "retirement expenditure does not slip". A simple reminder of the findings of his institution, which opponents of the reform had not failed to highlight.

Experienced as a lèse-majesté crime, these remarks had then attracted the wrath of Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, who had judged that the COR was based on "many hypotheses", which could "harm the readability of its findings".

Note: the latest report contains only four scenarios. And these are the most pessimistic, which still does not suit reform supporters.

"Big Sick COR"

Deputy Nicolas Turquois was thus moved on Tuesday by "this almost complete reversal of analysis", on behalf of his Modem group which "thinks that a reflection must be carried out on the functioning, or dysfunction, of the COR".

Other elected representatives of the presidential Renaissance party went more frankly, such as the deputy Pierre Cazeneuve denouncing on Twitter the "farce" and the "irresponsibility" of this body which "has cast doubt on the reality of our pension system and contributed to all the demagoguery".

His colleague Benjamin Haddad replied to him with an outbid, a sarcastic "Grand COR sick". None, however, ventures to suggest a remedy, and all forget to remember that parliamentarians sit there, as well as the major administrations of Bercy and social ministries.

"All the organizations where there is debate are useful", tempered Mr. Dussopt on Wednesday, stressing that "the government also has services which work on its own trajectories".

Whatever the COR may say, the Minister therefore maintains that "the reform makes it possible to balance the system over time, by 2030-2035", blaming this probable delay on inflation, which is causing pensions to increase more faster than wages and contributions.

Without fear of contradicting itself, the executive nevertheless finds some virtues in the COR's latest report, which proves according to Mr. Le Maire that "this reform was essential" because the "subject of financing" will be "much less important than if we did not. 'had not made'.

Proof that everyone sees noon at their door, the former number one of the CFDT Laurent Berger retained that this document "shows that this reform was unfair", while the CGT found confirmation of the "lies government and employers" while the system "is perfectly under control".