French President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform plan faces opposition from the country’s unions, a majority of its citizens, and now from the chairman of one the country’s banks.
(Bloomberg) — French President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform plan faces opposition from the country’s unions, a majority of its citizens, and now from the chairman of one the country’s banks.
Nicolas Thery, chairman of French cooperative bank Credit Mutuel, is personally against Macron’s reform in its current state, in particular raising the retirement age, since that will hurt those who started to work the earliest, he said at a conference hosted by the Association des Journalistes Economiques et Financiers in Paris on Tuesday.
Raising the retirement age “operates a transfer from people who started working at 19 and a quarter to people who started working later,” Thery said. “The real discussion lies in the contribution period.”
Earlier this month, Macron unveiled a plan to gradually raise France’s minimum retirement age to 64. He also aims to accelerate the implementation of a previous overhaul that gradually increases the number of years of contributions needed for a full pension.
In addition to union opposition to the plan, a poll released last week found that nearly three-fifths of French people oppose the overhaul.
Read more: Macron’s Plan to Make French Work Longer Triggers Strikes (3)
Thery, who is also a member of French union CFDT, believes a consensus could have been found on a plan to lengthen the contribution period, had it been presented as an effort to help people who haven’t been able to have full careers, notably women, or to boost the minimum retirement pension.
French unions have called for a first day of strikes and demonstrations on Jan. 19.
Thery declined to say whether he would join protests but joked, “I like outdoors activities.”
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