French President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday he supported his hand-picked prime minister’s decision to pause plans to raise the minimum retirement age but reiterated his belief that the move will eventually be necessary.
“Facts are stubborn, and we’re getting older,” Macron said Tuesday during a press conference in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
These are Macron’s first public comments on the matter since Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, announced his intention to temporarily freeze the law incrementally increasing the minimum retirement age in France — which triggered mass protests and remains deeply unpopular — until the next presidential election in 2027.
The freeze helped ensure Lecornu’s government would at least temporarily have the tacit support of the Socialists, who opposed the 2023 reform. He survived the first no-confidence vote against his government on Thursday by 18 votes.
Macron praised Lecornu’s decision as a way to “appease the public debate.” The French president insisted the reform remains “necessary for the country” and said he saw Lecornu’s move as “neither a repeal nor a suspension” but rather a “delay.”
In a meeting with lawmakers from Macron’s Renaissance party, Lecornu said his decision to freeze one of Macron’s landmark policies was designed to reopen debates with the “advantage of being on offense,” according to a participant in the meeting.
The French president reiterated that the future solvency of France’s pension system would not be guaranteed under the current minimum retirement age as more people retire and live longer than previous generations. In France, most workers contribute to a fund that pays the pensions of current retirees.
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