Macron breaks silence on pension reform, says French people should work longer

Since the introduction of his government’s pension reform, French President Emmanuel Macron has kept to himself, until this week, when he emerged from his silence, urging people to accept the need to work longer and focus their attention on improving the quality of work while they are active.

French President Emmanuel Macron in the meat section of the Rungis wholesale market, 21 February 2023. © Benoit Tessier/Pool via Reuters

Macron chose the Rungis wholesale market – the largest in the world - as the setting to make his first contact with citizens since the reform was introduced in January.

At an early morning visit Tuesday to the market south of Paris, Macron appealed to people’s “common sense”, telling journalists that “on the whole people know that they must work a bit longer on average, everyone, otherwise we will no be able to properly finance our pensions.”

The pension reform, which would raise the minimum legal retirement age from 62- to 64-years-old and increase the number of years people must pay into the system before they can draw out a pension, was hotly debated in parliament and is currently on its way for a debate and vote in the Senate.

Unions staged several one-day strikes against the reform that have drawn millions of people.

Macron staying the course

But Macron is unfazed. He said that raising the retirement age is a way to protect the pension system, which he called a national “treasure” that provides assets for people who have none.

The visit to Rungis – often a stop on a campaign trail – was a way for Macron to meet French people “who get up early” to work, according to the presidency’s office ahead of time.

Macron insisted that the focus should not be on the retirement age, but on work in general, which he said drives all of his reforms.

“The real debate that we should be having in our society is a debate about work,” he said, adding that “work must continue to be better paid,” though careers should evolve as people get older.

This echoes what several ministers have been saying in recent days, as a way to ease tensions around the pension reform.

'Good' employment

In a speech to tech workers on Monday, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne talked about the need to “improve the quality of life at work”, evoking the idea of “good employment” that she spoke about earlier in February – work that people enjoy and want to continue.

Lawmakers in the National Assembly were unable to debate the core of the reform before a deadline of Friday midnight, when the legislation was sent to the Senate, which will hold its own debate starting next week.

Unions have put their actions on hold, and have called for general strike and massive protest on 7 March.