France. Macron to Tackle French State Pensions in Mother-of-All-Reforms
France isn’t done with reforms. That’s the core message Prime Minister Edouard Philippe aimed to get across in Parliament Wednesday.
“We have reasons to be proud of the work we’ve done and we have the legitimacy to keep going,” Philippe said in a 66-minute speech laying out what he called “Act II” of Emmanuel Macron’s presidency. “We’ve done a lot in the past two years and we need to do a lot more,” he added. “Our enemy is the status quo.”
Macron’s team is seeking to reassure his base that the president’s commitment to modernizing the euro zone’s second-largest economy hasn’t been shaken by months of protest by the Yellow Vest movement and seeing his party finish just behind the euroskeptic National Rally in May’s European elections.
The chamber, where the administration has a healthy majority, is due to vote on the program later in the day. Philippe said his government will next month present proposals to gradually merge France’s 42 different public pension systems to ensure that all contributors have the same rights. The minimum retirement age will remain 62 but incentives will be introduced to encourage people to work longer.
Read more @Finance Yahoo
