Digressions: method, tempo, “sequence” of mistakes … Hollande, as a rule, lowers the reform

He describes the “level of anger and resentment as rare” that he experienced. BFMPolitique’s guest this Sunday afternoon, in partnership with Le Parisien, François Hollande was not stingy with words as he revisited the government’s political strategy for pension reform. How did we get here? “He got it started first. Before listing and detailing what he considers to be “a string of mistakes.”

Then the former head of state returned to the “moment” of this reform. “They decided to carry out the pension reform at the most inopportune moment,” he reasoned, “in conditions of high inflation, necessarily imputed purchasing power” and “anxiety, because there is also a war in Ukraine.” The second error pointed out by François Hollande is the error of “content” and “meaning”. “When you propose a pension reform that requires effort from those who work long and early, and nothing from those with the highest incomes, this is also a misinterpretation,” he explained.

“They were waiting for the President of the Republic to calm him down, but he exacerbated it”

“Third error, error in method,” Hollande continued. “When you start a discussion with a political organization, in this case the LR, and not the trade unions, in this case the CFDT, which was willing to go for it, you are making a new mistake.” And to continue “the fourth error, which is a procedural error”, concludes François Hollande. “You initiate pension reform, a broad topic, through a procedure that reduces the time for discussion, and in the end, when you claimed otherwise, you get 49.3.”

Finally, François Hollande returned to Emmanuel Macron’s speech at 13:00 on TF 1 and France 2, the “fifth error”, which he says is a “communication error”. “We were waiting for the President of the Republic on Tuesday to calm down, and he made it worse by also having nasty words about the CFDT leaders.” “Wouldn’t it be the last mistake to continue acting like nothing happened?” Turn around? Think it will work? he finally asked.

“The best solution is to invite the union, without waiting for the decision of the Constitutional Council (…), to resolve all issues, including pension reform,” concluded the former first secretary of the Socialist Party. “I think the situation can be resolved,” he said.