Why France Is Heading For Another Showdown Over Pension Reform

As France takes its first political steps out of lockdown, President Macron is restarting his battle over pension reform, one that led to some of the biggest strikes in decades in December 2019 and months of ‘yellow vest’ protests across France (les gilets jaunes).

The pension reform has proved unpopular because whilst it attempts to streamline 42 current schemes into one, it would introduce a points system of retirement, meaning that many public sector workers would lose their early retirement age with a higher pension.

The current scheme pays a pension on the last six months salary (usually the highest earning months) and takes the highest 25 grossing years into account. The new scheme would take every working year into account which reduces most people’s pension, particularly if they were unemployed for a time or took career breaks.

During the pandemic, many in his government thought that the reform would be buried for good, particularly as Macron had stated in a speech in April how he wanted to push through a new social project. However, Macron stated this week that he wants to push ahead with a significant part of the pension reform, as reported by France Info.

It is understood that he believes he was elected in 2017 under the mandate of pension reform and wants to see at least some of it through. It is said that Macron regrets not having acted sooner to pass the bill before the gilets jaunes protests got under way.

The move is unlikely to win him many friends. As reported in the New York Times, whilst France is believed by its neighbours and friends to have done a good job in managing the pandemic, Macron’s approval ratings are low and many are on the attack. In a recent Le Figaro poll, 66% of French people have an unfavourable view of the government.

Many also question the timing. As France emerges from lockdown, serious questions are being asked about the nature of work, whose work and how society can repair some of the inequalities which the pandemic has laid bare.

France, just as elsewhere, has been faced with the stark truth over the disparity which exists between permanent workers and the precariousness of many others in the workplace. As stated in The Conversation, French people on the frontline “are delivery cyclists of African origin, Maghreb security guards in front of post offices and supermarkets, cashiers and nurses, underpaid and under-considered.”

At the same time, others have been confined to the house, homeschooling and working, and found themselves with paradoxically, more time on their hands to pursue leisure activities, protected by the welfare state and permanent contracts.

Coronavirus has not turned out to be the great leveller that everyone thought it originally would be; in economic terms, the French–as elsewhere–have not all been affected equally.

President Macron was fighting to push through his political vision of economic reform against les gilets jaunes and anti-pension reformers when the pandemic broke (his detractors see him as defending the rights of the liberal rich elite). Now that France is reawakening, it remains to be seen how far he can push his rhetoric of economic change without addressing such inequality.

As reported in Les Echos, he has conceded to increase the minimum pension for farmers, as suggested by the Communist party. This would enable 289,000 farmers being able to have €114 more each month on average ($130), totalling an extra cost to the government of €400 million ($454 million). The new bill is currently being read and debated.