French vow to fight ‘tooth and nail' over plot to increase retirement age to 66
French politicians have promised to fight 'tooth and nail' against leaked proposals to increase the country's retirement age to 66.
The Pensions Advisory Council (COR), which advises the French government, warned this week that the pension age must rise from 64 to 66 by 2045 to stop the country going bankrupt.
It comes just two years after protesters took to the streets over the plans to make residents work longer.
Laurent Berger, of the moderate CFDT union, told The Times: 'This is an outright provocation. French workers have already paid the price. Asking them to work even longer is unacceptable and will be fiercely resisted.'
Meanwhile, Olivier Faure, of the Socialist party, said: 'The government is using scare tactics and cooked-up figures to justify yet another attack on ordinary people. We will fight tooth and nail against this injustice.'
Emmanuel Macron, the French president, announced in 2023 that the the retirement age would increase from 62 to 64 by 2030. The rise was scheduled to happen gradually by three months per year.
The move sparked widespread public outrage, with more than one million protesters joining demonstrations across the country.
But the latest report from the COR suggests the pension system will sink further into the red despite the recent reforms.
Currently, a quarter of French public spending goes on pensions and this level is steadily rising, according to the report, which was leaked to the media ahead of its official release on June 12.
Without change, the system will be in deficit by €15bn (£12.6bn) per year by 2035 due to the growing number of pensioners, the state auditor has previously warned.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, of the Left-wing Unbowed France party, lashed out at the call to increase the pension age to 66. 'This is a declaration of war on the French people. Macron and his technocrats want to turn retirement into a privilege for the rich. We will bring the country to a standstill if they persist.'
Meanwhile, far-Right party the National Rally has pledged to reintroduce the pension age of 62 if it gets into power.
France has one of the lowest retirement ages in Europe and one of the highest state pension entitlements relative to the cost of living.
In the UK, the state pension age is 66, increasing to 68 between 2044 and 2046.
Meanwhile, Denmark recently raised the age of retirement to 70, the highest in Europe.
Francois Bayrou, the French prime minister, agreed to reopen discussions around the highly unpopular 2023 reform in order to bring more stability to his minority government.
Unions continue to push for a return to 62 but Mr Bayrou, a centrist ally of Mr Macron's, has ruled out the idea.
According to France's state auditor, keeping the retirement age at 63 instead of increasing it would have cost an extra €13bn (£11bn) a year by 2035.
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