Pension reform reintroduced, benefits frozen in 2026… Senators from the Social Affairs Committee, Saturday, November 15, proposed returning to various measures voted on in the National Assembly regarding the Social Security budget, including highly sensitive measures “suspension” Borne pension reform.
If the spotlight has been on the National Assembly in recent days, the Senate will get to the heart of the budget issue, examining a Social Security financing bill in committee.
This initial stage allows senators from the right and center, who are in the majority in the upper house, to determine their intentions with a view to examining the text in a public session, scheduled for Wednesday. Not surprisingly, a majority of senators wanted to show their disagreement with the bill’s main policy: the “suspension” until January 2028 the pension reform raised the official retirement age to 64 years.
“perlimpin powder”
Given by the Prime Minister, Sébastien Lecornu, to the Socialists, it was largely written off by senators on the committee, Agence France-Presse (AFP) learned from several participants. “This is perlimpinpin powder”regretted in the committee Les Républicains (LR) Senator Pascale Gruny, noting the fact that the funding of the measure would be based on “to the retirees themselves”. “The Senate cannot deny the reforms it has supported for years”assumed responsibility for centrist general reporter Elisabeth Doineau at the AFP.
Left groups strongly criticized this decision. “The majority of senators puts itself in a position to reject any agreement and compromise”regrets Bernard Jomier (socialist group), worrying AFP about a “very clear stiffening” from the right wing and center. “When we destroy in one chamber everything that was done in the other chamber of Parliament, that is not a construction process”protests ecologist Anne Souyris.
This reinstatement in no way prejudges the outcome of the debate on this text, which will continue through Parliament until early December. Senators will also start on Wednesday from the text sent to them, namely from the version amended in recent days by deputies before debate was interrupted. Therefore, all amendments approved by the committee on Saturday must be submitted to the full Senate for another vote.
Unpopular action
Disagreements with deputies promise a lot. On Saturday, senators proposed in committee a freeze on social benefits in 2026, which are usually indexed to inflation. The Assembly largely eliminated the measure during its deliberations.
A pension freeze, also scrapped by deputies, was also reintroduced in committee, even if senators voted, at this stage, to keep pensions below 1,400 euros, according to some participants.
So many unpopular measures the Senate says it is ready to take, in the name of restoring Social Security accounts. “Our ambition is to clean up everything that appears to be aberrant in terms of new levies and an increase in the deficit, in order to stay on track for a deficit of 17.5 billion euros” Social Security, believes centrist Olivier Henno.
The deficit is more than 24 billion euros
The work of the Senate Social Affairs Committee, at this stage, has succeeded in reducing the “Secu” deficit to 15.1 billion euros, according to the presentation of the rapporteurs consulted to AFP. The target of 17.5 billion initially set by the government has been largely exceeded after the bill was passed by the Assembly. According to the Minister of Labor, Jean-Pierre Farandou, the deficit is more than 24 billion euros, the same estimate as that of the Assembly and Senate.
Several dozen amendments removing measures added by the National Assembly were adopted early Saturday, indicating that the Senate vote on a copy of the Social Security budget was fairly close to the government’s initial proposal.
Senators on the committee also opposed another measure won by the socialist deputies: an increase in the CSG imposed specifically on capital income (dividends, employee savings, housing savings plans, etc.), which would raise 2.8 billion euros by 2026.
