Pension reform: between Macron and Berger, dialogue of deaf

Relations have been tense in recent months between the Elysée and the boss of the CFDT, intractable on the recovery of the retirement age.

by Claire Gatinois, Ivanne Trippenbach and Thibaud Métais

In the greatest secrecy, a man is received at the Elysée. No one is in interest to move the interview. This December 7, 2022, Laurent Berger, secretary general of the CFDT, erected in recent months as a key protagonist of the pension reform, went on rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré, the day before his official appointment with the Prime Minister , Elisabeth Borne. One week before the initial date of the presentation of the project, finally postponed on January 10, Emmanuel Macron decided to take matters into his own hands: he still counts on the support of the reformist union. “Me, I am an optimist, said to the press the head of state in early September. There is no political force that can be freed from reality. I believe in the virtue of truth. I also believe in The history of this union and the strength of pedagogy. “

las, during this face-to-face confidential face, Laurent Berger does not flan more than in public. The trade unionist repeats to the President of the Republic, his eyes in his eyes, that he has always been against a retirement age. As well as the CFDT. The two personalities, whose relationship is already electric, begin a dialogue of deaf. “We have two different conceptions, which have nothing to do with social democracy, the place of unionism, the distribution of efforts in our country and help for the most vulnerable,” explains Laurent Berger in the world. “Between them, it does not work. They come from two worlds so distant,” observes Aurore Bergé, president of the Renaissance group in the National Assembly, who attended the gestation of the reform. Data-format = “inread_top” Aria-Hidden = “True”>

A few hours later, that same day, Emmanuel Macron brings together majority leaders during a dinner, where he again defended retirement at 65, against 62 today. But the president is still trying a media pressure: he will agree to amend his project in favor of 64 years, accompanied by an extension of the faster contribution period than provided by the Touraine reform, if the reformists recognize the concession . In Matignon, we summarize this hand stretched by: “a moving against a move”.

Pain lost. The merry -go -round has the gift of ulcerating the first targeted by the maneuver. During a telephone conversation in December 2022 with the Minister of Public Service, Stanislas Guérini, the union leader does not hide his annoyance on these expectations which, he knows, will not be satisfied. Do we expect him to betray his base?

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/Media reports cited above.