François Bayrou said Saturday that "nothing has been clearly explained" in the pension reform, the government having according to him "let itself be caught in a trap", failing to carry "the debate on the inevitable rebalancing of the system", in an interview with the JDD.

"The debate with the country the inevitable rebalancing of the pension system has not taken place, there is the source of all the difficulties," considers the boss of the MoDem, explaining "not being able to understand why we accepted without reacting that we accredit in the minds of the French the idea that our pension system was balanced today".

The "misguided" opposition

Faced with the "joke" of the discourse of the oppositions who contest the need for a refinancing of the system – according to him "misguided minds" – the historical ally of Emmanuel Macron deplores in particular that "the government has not presented to the French" the "figures of the national accounts": "Why? To spare the social partners? For the sake of reassuring Brussels? Or by conformity of thought? »

"It is our very conception of democracy that is at stake," continues the unfortunate triple presidential candidate, castigating the idea of "believing that once elected, it is the leaders who decide alone, and that the base will have to follow, obey or resign itself to a decision taken above it."

Bayrou wanted "a much more comprehensive plan"

"No major reform can be carried out if we have not carried out the demand for total information and shared awareness," argues Bayrou, considering that "fractures, resistance and reluctance" come "when the organization of power is reduced to a confrontation between a + summit + who does not say who he is and what he wants and a base to which we only ask to obey".

However, according to him, "the mechanisms of control of power from above, the eternal return of the same elements of language, the same technocratic reflexes have hindered the mission of reinventing the relationship between the base and the so-called summit".

On the substance, the High Commissioner for Planning considers that "it would have been necessary a much more complete plan to return to balance over ten or twelve years, with efforts required not only from employees, but also from other categories of the population", expressing his "suffering" than the "reformists" - targeting on the one hand the CFDT, CFTC, CGC and "large swathes of FO", on the other hand the executive - "cannot find the methods of working together".

"There are responsibilities on both sides," he said, pointing to the "steep approach" of the CFDT "and, on the side of the executive, the fear of being 'brooded' after making concessions."

  • Pension reform 2023
  • Society
  • François Bayrou
  • Emmanuel Macron
  • Modem