Seven hours of unpaid work: not the government's official position "at this stage"

She referred to the ongoing "parliamentary discussions" on the budgets for 2025. Similarly, the idea of ​​making certain retirees contribute, raised by the Minister of Labor Astrid Panosyan-Bouvet, is "not the government's position at this stage," Sophie Primas explained to the press after the Council of Ministers.

Catherine Vautrin and Astrid Panosyan-Bouvet have each, on their side, provoked a wave of protest in the opposition and even in their own camp by launching into the public debate two proposals intended to improve the financing of social protection and ward off the worsening of the Social Security deficit.

Sophie Primas refused to consider these trial runs as the expression of a "cacophony" within the government team.

"I prefer polyphony to the word cacophony. The government is made up of people who are experienced people (...) Everyone therefore has solutions, possibilities, hypotheses in mind. And so the Prime Minister draws on this experience, draws on the provisions that each person can provide. In the end, it is the Prime Minister and Parliament who will decide," said the government spokesperson.

In an interview with the JDD, Catherine Vautrin relaunched on Sunday a measure, voted in November by the Senate in the PLFSS, to make all workers work without pay for seven more hours each year, to finance the autonomy sector. Criticized, the measure had been abandoned by the deputies and senators when the text was passed in the joint committee, with the approval of the Barnier government.

According to Ms Vautrin's entourage, this system is likely to increase the coffers by 2,5 billion over a full year and two billion this year if it comes into force on March 1.

In another intervention on TF1 on Monday, Minister Panosyan-Bouvet suggested that certain retirees contribute to financing Social Security.

This contribution could concern "retired people who can afford it", the minister suggested, specifying that "it could be 40%" of retirees "depending on the level of pension".