French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou on Tuesday opened the door to renegotiating a disputed pension reform in a bid to win over left-wing lawmakers he needs to pass the 2025 budget
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French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou delivers his general policy speech at the National Assembly in Paris, France, on Tuesday. Reuters
French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou on Tuesday opened the door to renegotiating a disputed pension reform in a bid to win over left-wing lawmakers he needs to pass the 2025 budget.
Bayrou’s concession underlined the scale of France’s political turmoil as he prepared to spend his first weeks in office reworking the hard-won 2023 pension reform under pressure from the left, which threatens to topple his government otherwise.
He made the gesture during a speech to parliament after a tumultuous 2024 in which President Emmanuel Macron shocked the nation by calling early elections, only to lose his working majority in parliament just as public finances went off track.
Bayrou, a long-time debt hawk, said responsibility for France’s worsening public finances was shared by many previous governments. But he warned that France’s growing debt pile was a “sword of Damocles” hanging over future generations’ heads.
“Anyone asking for additional spending has taken part in this fatal tango that has taken us to the edge of the precipice,” the veteran centrist told the National Assembly of the euro zone’s second largest economy.
France is under pressure from ratings agencies and financial investors, which have demanded higher premiums to hold French debt since Macron’s decision to call snap elections.
Raising the pension age, considered by many economists an essential move to adapt French public finances to a rapidly ageing society, has been the flagship economic reform of Macron’s second term, and passed despite major street protests.
Concession
Bayrou, who delivered his message to lawmakers in a keynote policy speech setting out his governing principles, proposed to entrust trade unions and employers’ groups with a three-month mission to find a new deal on pension reform.
He said the minimum age of 64 to draw a full pension, the most contested part of the 2023 reform, should not be a taboo.
The new “conclave” exploring a new pension pact will have to propose a deal that is financially balanced. If it can’t be balanced, the current deal would remain in place, he said.
Bayrou’s minority government, formed last month after the collapse of his predecessor’s administration, is trying to secure assurances from some opposition parties – th