Retirement reform in the crosshairs ahead of French elections
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00:00At the heart of the campaign for France's National Assembly, a national obsession, retirement,
00:06as party leaders stake out their positions on when French workers should be able to claim
00:10state pensions.
00:12After previously having pledged to reduce the retirement age to 60, National Rally President
00:17Jordan Bardella says the right to claim full monthly benefits would be based on contribution
00:23years, 42 of them.
00:26It will be progressive, with a legal retirement age of 62 years old and a number of years
00:31of contributions up to 42 years.
00:35That means someone who starts their career at age 24 would only be able to claim a full
00:41pension at age 66.
00:44For contribution years, it sounds like we're going to be working a long time.
00:50For the Renaissance party of President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Gabriel Attal,
00:55the existing pension reform plan, jammed through Parliament without a vote last year,
01:00will be maintained, 43 years of contributions, with a minimum retirement age of 64.
01:07The new Popular Front, meanwhile, makes no bones about its designs on that reform.
01:12The left coalition aims to bring the retirement age back to 62 at first, then down even further
01:19to 60 years old, with 40 years of contributions.
01:24Even after Macron's reform, France still has one of the lowest retirement ages in Europe.
01:30It's also the third biggest spender after Italy and Greece.
01:342021 saw public spending on pensions hit nearly 14% of GDP.