The sole large cost cutting reform from Macron’s second term is practically dead unless his elected successor revives it in 2028. Lecornu will have to find more than two billion euros over the next two years.
TXDobber on
I’m not even French, and “I fucking hate this country”.
Macron will never willingly part with the pension reform long term, because he correctly sees it as existential, so this just feels like a delaying tactic for, you guessed it, “hopefully the next parliamentary elections go well for us” which is the common denominator in the thinking of literally all French political parties.
Why_Cant_I_Slay_This on
When Australia faced the same problem in the 90s, they made it work and created a decent system. But now with social media and “vibes” the same reforms would be impossible. Also, we are talking about France where the people start itching to overthrow the government every 100 years or so…
Just-Sale-7015 on
More precisely, he says the age of retirement will be frozen until Jan 2028.
parkas1 on
Real pension deficit in France is about 50 billions euros
>In 2024, €353 billion was paid out in pensions. However, as former senior civil servant Jean-Pascal Beaufret explains, only 80% of this amount comes from social security contributions or taxes earmarked for this purpose. The remaining 20%—or €70 billion—is made up by subsidies paid by the state, local authorities, hospitals, etc. These are in addition to the official, visible financing of pensions, which is the only source recorded by the Court of Auditors.
>Why not, one might ask? Except that in order to raise the necessary funds, the State carries out a strange accounting operation.
>In the private sector, the pension contribution rate is 28% of gross salary. This is enormous: working people pay more than a quarter of their salary to pensioners.
>But the state as an employer has a specific feature: it does not have a separate pension fund. Ministry budgets cover both the salaries of active civil servants and the pensions of former civil servants.
>The state as employer can therefore manipulate the “pension contribution rate” for civil servants as it sees fit. Thus, faced with a very unfavorable age pyramid, the state has quietly raised this rate to… 78%! This makes no economic sense: can we imagine a country where teachers actually pay 78% of their salary to former civil servants?
>It is absurd, but it is possible. The proof: in the defense sector, this rate even reaches… 126% for military personnel.
>François Bayrou was therefore right when he explained, in his general policy speech, that because of these over-contributions by the state as employer, there was a “hidden” deficit in public pensions—and therefore in pensions as a whole.
>[…]
Incredibly, the precise figure is impossible to calculate. But we can estimate the order of magnitude: €50 billion. That is the real deficit in our pension system!
Herecomesthewooooo on
This might sound like a relief to most people, but it’s a huge problem long-term. France already has one of the most expensive pension systems in the world and it’s getting harder to fund as people live longer and the workforce gets smaller and smaller. Delaying reform just digs the financial hole deeper and fucks over the next government.
Every time someone tries to touch pensions, the country explodes in strikes and protests. Politicians back down, and nothing gets fixed. It’s like everyone knows the system isn’t sustainable, but no one wants to be the one to deal with it so they kick the can.. that won’t work forever.
tripletruble on
could this party be any more ineffectual? at this point, i am convinced renaissance is a net negative for france – the party has no courage, is dogshit at political theater, and it has sucked all the moderates out of the left and right who could have otherwise been moderating forces
7 Comments
!ping France
The sole large cost cutting reform from Macron’s second term is practically dead unless his elected successor revives it in 2028. Lecornu will have to find more than two billion euros over the next two years.
I’m not even French, and “I fucking hate this country”.
PS aren’t going to save RE from the impending RN wave, a wave that LR seems open to working with considering LR has moved to the right under Retailleau, and it seems reciprocal since Bardella said [he’s willing to reach out](https://information.tv5monde.com/international/bardella-se-dit-pret-tendre-la-main-aux-republicains-sur-un-accord-de-gouvernement-2793192?amp) to LR for a government agreement.
Macron will never willingly part with the pension reform long term, because he correctly sees it as existential, so this just feels like a delaying tactic for, you guessed it, “hopefully the next parliamentary elections go well for us” which is the common denominator in the thinking of literally all French political parties.
When Australia faced the same problem in the 90s, they made it work and created a decent system. But now with social media and “vibes” the same reforms would be impossible. Also, we are talking about France where the people start itching to overthrow the government every 100 years or so…
More precisely, he says the age of retirement will be frozen until Jan 2028.
Real pension deficit in France is about 50 billions euros
[Quoting](https://www.liberation.fr/idees-et-debats/tribunes/50-milliards-deuros-voila-le-vrai-deficit-de-notre-systeme-de-retraites-20251011_TFEXQUAL7ZCJVJJPS5MXUGETZQ/) a french economist, translated with deepl :
>In 2024, €353 billion was paid out in pensions. However, as former senior civil servant Jean-Pascal Beaufret explains, only 80% of this amount comes from social security contributions or taxes earmarked for this purpose. The remaining 20%—or €70 billion—is made up by subsidies paid by the state, local authorities, hospitals, etc. These are in addition to the official, visible financing of pensions, which is the only source recorded by the Court of Auditors.
>Why not, one might ask? Except that in order to raise the necessary funds, the State carries out a strange accounting operation.
>In the private sector, the pension contribution rate is 28% of gross salary. This is enormous: working people pay more than a quarter of their salary to pensioners.
>But the state as an employer has a specific feature: it does not have a separate pension fund. Ministry budgets cover both the salaries of active civil servants and the pensions of former civil servants.
>The state as employer can therefore manipulate the “pension contribution rate” for civil servants as it sees fit. Thus, faced with a very unfavorable age pyramid, the state has quietly raised this rate to… 78%! This makes no economic sense: can we imagine a country where teachers actually pay 78% of their salary to former civil servants?
>It is absurd, but it is possible. The proof: in the defense sector, this rate even reaches… 126% for military personnel.
>François Bayrou was therefore right when he explained, in his general policy speech, that because of these over-contributions by the state as employer, there was a “hidden” deficit in public pensions—and therefore in pensions as a whole.
>[…]
Incredibly, the precise figure is impossible to calculate. But we can estimate the order of magnitude: €50 billion. That is the real deficit in our pension system!
This might sound like a relief to most people, but it’s a huge problem long-term. France already has one of the most expensive pension systems in the world and it’s getting harder to fund as people live longer and the workforce gets smaller and smaller. Delaying reform just digs the financial hole deeper and fucks over the next government.
Every time someone tries to touch pensions, the country explodes in strikes and protests. Politicians back down, and nothing gets fixed. It’s like everyone knows the system isn’t sustainable, but no one wants to be the one to deal with it so they kick the can.. that won’t work forever.
could this party be any more ineffectual? at this point, i am convinced renaissance is a net negative for france – the party has no courage, is dogshit at political theater, and it has sucked all the moderates out of the left and right who could have otherwise been moderating forces