French far right reviewing potential tweaks to retirement reform proposal

PARIS — France’s far-right National Rally appears to be in alignment on lowering the age of retirement to 62 but is looking at other options to bring down pension spending before Marine Le Pen’s presidential campaign gets fully underway. Two party officials say Le Pen ruled in high-level meetings on July 16 and 17 that the National Rally would maintain a previous pledge to bring back down the legal retirement age, confirming reporting from French daily Libération. French President Emmanuel Macron’s flagship pension reform raised the retirement age to 64 for most workers. However, according to two participants in these meetings, Le Pen tasked the party with studying potential other retirement reform tweaks before they formally unveil their campaign platform in the coming months. One such option is to scrap a rule that allows individuals to retire on a full pension at 67, even if they haven’t paid in long enough to otherwise qualify, as reported last month by POLITICO. According to one participant in the meetings who was granted anonymity to discuss internal conversations, the National Rally is also looking into a potentially controversial proposal which would encourage workers to contribute to private pension schemes in addition to paying into the state system — a proposal long supported by fiscal conservatives. Rival factions within the National Rally have for weeks battled over what to do about France’s generous pension system in light of the country’s increasingly dire financial outlook. Party President Jordan Bardella and other seemingly more business-friendly National Rally figures have argued against committing to lowering the retirement age in order to bolster their credibility on economic issues. Bardella was long seen as the National Rally’s presumptive presidential candidate as Le Pen appealed an embezzlement conviction that looked likely to knock her out of the contest. But a court ruling on July 7 cleared the way for her to run next year. The confirmation of Le Pen as the party’s presidential candidate was a victory for the traditional wing of the party that favors lowering the retirement age. “Some are acting as though it’s already settled,” said another participant in the meeting, who belongs to the National Rally’s pro-business faction. “It’s not the [same] reform as 2022 if there are changes,” they said, referencing Le Pen’s promise to maintain a legal retirement age at 62 ahead of the last presidential election.