Emmanuel Macron wants to postpone the retirement age to 65 but promises peaceful consultation on the subject

To postpone the retirement age to 65, a key point in his program, Emmanuel Macron wants to “take into account the difficulty of careers” but by criteria “that we individualize”, because “otherwise we will recreate special diets. He also wants to take into account “long careers” as well as “tiring jobs, physically or nervously”, citing slaughterhouse workers and teachers, for whom “it is sometimes hard in certain classes to go up to 65 years old” . For all these cases, “we will adapt the end of career by negotiation”, he assured on France 3.

Peaceful consultation

He promised if he is re-elected “to launch a consultation in a peaceful manner” on this reform at the start of his second five-year term, rather than implementing it upon his arrival. “It has nothing to do with whatever it costs,” he said, the reform is not intended to “compensate for Covid expenses” but to “preserve our pensions in the future”. Asked about “the risk of putting the French back on the street”, given the hostility of the unions, he judged that it exists but that to convince “we must explain why”. “I agree” that this reform is not easy, but “it is not easy on anything”, he said. And, according to him, it is impossible to save money if we want to finance the autonomy of seniors and raise the minimum pension at the full rate to 1,100 euros, other promises of his program. “I want to do things calmly, with kindness, that’s why I did not launch such reforms a few months ago,” he said. “Our country is tired of the Covid crisis and worried about the war, but we must continue to move forward,” he defended.