Pensions: Gabriel Attal proposes a reform based on the length of contributions, without a retirement age

A few days after the failure of negotiations between the social partners , and while the Prime Minister, François Bayrou, is trying to gain time , Gabriel Attal proposes to reform the pension system without referring to the legal retirement age but based on the contribution period, in a series of economic proposals with a view to the 2027 presidential election, in an interview with the daily newspaper Les Echos , published on Sunday June 29.

The potential candidate for the Elysée assured that he would support in Parliament the measures adopted by the government which "improve the reform if they are financed" , while advocating for the implementation of a "new system" . He said he was in favour of a "universal, free and productive" system, which would no longer be based on the legal retirement age, raised from 62 to 64 years in the 2023 reform, and a major point of controversy, but "solely on a contribution period by continuing to work longer" .

His proposal would include "a capitalization component," which he does not quantify. "The urgent thing is to guarantee the balance of the system in the short term," the former prime minister maintains, suggesting submitting this reform to a referendum "if we consider it urgent to implement it," or letting the next presidential election decide this debate.

The man who is also the president of the presidential group in the Assembly also proposes to make up for the deficit by de-indexing certain pensions from inflation. "The automatic and full indexation of all pensions is not intangible," says Mr. Attal, noting a cost of "15 billion euros in 2024."

He also said he was not opposed to a "blank year" for the next budget, which would consist of freezing certain expenditures and renewing them identically, without taking inflation into account.

In his proposals on work, resulting from his party's "thematic conventions" , the leader of the Renaissance deputies still says he wants to implement a "shock" of "40 billion euros in salary increases" by "eliminating the employee portion of old-age contributions" .

According to Gabriel Attal, these proposals are intended to address the "orphans" of the Socialist Party, which "remains in submission" to La France Insoumise, as much as those of the Les Républicains party, which has chosen "to share the same political space as the National Rally" is "no longer a pro-European" or "pro-business" party and "positions itself against the ecological transition" .