Pension reform: Gabriel Attal proposes reform without retirement age but with a capitalization component

In an interview with Les Echos on Sunday, the leader of the presidential Renaissance party, Gabriel Attal, proposed reforming the pension system without referring to the legal retirement age but based on the length of contributions , in a series of economic proposals in view of the presidential election.

A few days after the failure of negotiations between the social partners on pensions, the potential candidate for the Élysée 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 says he is 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 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 ensure the balance of the system in the short term ," he maintains, suggesting that this reform be put to a referendum "if we consider it urgent to implement it," or that the presidential election be allowed to settle this debate.

Not opposed to a blank year for the budget

The former Prime Minister also proposes to de-index certain pensions from inflation to cover the deficit. "The automatic and full indexation of all pensions is not intangible," he asserts, 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 unchanged , without taking inflation into account.

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

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", and is "no longer a pro-European party", nor "pro-business", and " positions itself against the ecological transition", declares Gabriel Attal.