Paris (France) (AFP) – Gabriel Attal criticized on Wednesday the pension reform proposed by his competitor Edouard Philippe, saying that it is “the Macron proposal of 2022” and “that we are no longer taking palliative care measures”.

Published on: 09/30/2026 - 12:48

Edouard Philippe's proposal, gradually reaching a legal starting age of 65 with 45 years of contributions, "this is exactly the proposal that Emmanuel Macron made in 2022 in his presidential campaign", judged the Renaissance presidential candidate on Europe 1/Cnews.

Its rival Horizons announced on Tuesday that it wanted to “resume the 2023 reform which placed the legal retirement age at 64 years instead of 62 years and nine months today and which placed the contribution period at 43 years instead of 42.5”. “Then, we will continue so that in less than 10 years, we are at 65, for the legal age, and 45 years,” he said.

But for Mr. Attal, "we are no longer moving the parameters or cursors, we are no longer taking palliative care measures to allow a system to survive when this system objectively no longer holds up."

"What I am proposing is that we change the retirement system (...) I do not believe that the legal retirement age still makes it possible to control our system. I propose that we take the contribution period. You have a real discount if you leave early, a real premium if you leave late," he said.

“It’s a real difference that we have with Edouard Philippe,” he insisted.

For his part, Raphaël Glucksmann (Place publique) described on BFMTV/RMC Edouard Philippe's reform as "deeply unacceptable".

The favorite of the Social Democratic primary, who has not yet detailed his proposal, wants to return "as a basis at the age of 62, but with a system of reduction which in fact simply allows justice" by starting again "from this question of arduousness".

“The challenge of pension reform is that it is fair, and that we therefore take into account inequality in terms of work and inequality in terms of retirement,” he assured.

far/hr/tes

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