PARIS — France’s pensions system is due for a makeover, Marylise Léon, the leader of a top French union, said Thursday as the retirement age debate returns to center stage amid a deepening political crisis.
“The question of our pensions system isn’t closed,” said Léon, who has been secretary general of CFDT — one of France’s two largest labor unions — since 2023, during POLITICO’s Competitiveness Summit in Paris. “Our current systems do not meet the challenges of the workplace.”
The debate around pensions has been at the center of French politics since President Emmanuel Macron pushed through a 2023 reform that raised the minimum retirement age for most workers to 64, despite widespread opposition from both the public and unions, which unanimously opposed the move.
Momentum to suspend the reform, which remains unpopular, has grown in recent days after the collapse of a third French government in under a year. Parties representing a majority of lawmakers in the French National Assembly are now in favor of rolling back the reform. Former Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne — who pushed the legislation through in the face of fierce opposition — has said she now supports suspending the law.
“What we are experiencing in an accelerated and intense way is the result of political exhaustion,” Léon said of the ongoing political crisis.
Léon, whose union is generally perceived as moderate and open to compromise, said her wish was for the pensions debate to take place during the next presidential election scheduled for 2027 — and not to focus exclusively on the minimum retirement age.
“[The minimum age] doesn’t address several issues: those who start working young, who have difficult jobs,” she said. “What many citizens tell us is that they feel they have fewer and fewer things they can actually influence.”
The CFDT supports a points-based pension system, whereby workers earn points for each year they work, with their pensions based on the total points they accumulate. Under France’s current system, the pensions of most workers are calculated based on past income and are secured after they reach a minimum age having worked for at least 43 years.
Such a reform was introduced under Macron’s presidency by former Prime Minister Édouard Philippe, with the CFDT’s support, but was scrapped due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
During the POLITICO summit on Thursday, Léon also ruled herself out as a prospective candidate for prime minister. Her predecessor, Laurent Berger, has often been mentioned as an option to lead a so-called technical government which would include sectoral experts rather than politicians.
Macron is expected to announce a new prime minister — the fourth in under a year — on Friday.
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