Elisabeth Borne has set herself the goal of carrying out the pension reform “without it turning into a showdown”, repeating that there is “no magic recipe” except “working a little longer “, Friday, June 3 during a public meeting in Calvados.
“We are not saying to ourselves that we are going to make a reform to annoy the French”, pleaded the Prime Minister in front of about sixty people gathered in Évrecy, where the head of government is running for the legislative elections of the 12 and June 19. “We have to set ourselves the goal of doing it without it turning into a showdown. The French are responsible people and it must be possible,” she insisted.
Taking part in a question-and-answer game with the audience, the Prime Minister was asked about her certainty “that this reform would go to the end”, while Emmanuel Macron affirmed this Friday in an interview with the regional press that she would enter into effective “from the summer of 2023”. Arguing that the goal was first “to come to an agreement” with the social partners in particular, Elisabeth Borne also stressed that there was, according to her, “no magic recipe”. “If we want to finance our pension system, our social model (…) we have to manage to talk to each other about how we want to gradually work a little longer, taking into account the difficulty of the professions” , she launched.
The subject of pensions was invited several times during his hour of exchanges with the voters of the 6th district. “I have 1,600 euros a month,” detailed a 77-year-old man, who contributed 43 years working at the elevator company Otis. “My wife gets 400 euros a month. She got a 40 cent raise, that’s half a crescent a month,” he quipped.
“I am well aware that French people have very modest pensions,” agreed Ms. Borne, promising to examine the case of his wife and assuring the will of the executive to upgrade small pensions. Earlier Friday, Elisabeth Borne went to a Maison France services, where she said she wanted to fight “the feeling that public services are less and less accessible”.
“This campaign makes it clear that we are listening to the French people and that we are determined to provide them with answers in terms of health, schools, public services, by providing more proximity,” said she insisted.
