Retirement at 60 or 62, but at what cost? Bardella reveals in his book how the RN intends to make the French work more

Two weeks before Marine Le Pen presents her pension reform, supposed to restore a legal age to 62 or even 60, Jordan Bardella indicates in his new book "Governing" published Wednesday that the National Rally intends to "strengthen the conditions for validation of a quarter". The four-time candidate for the Élysée plans to detail her project on November 17. But his runner-up, promised to Matignon in the event of victory despite the accusations of anti-Semitism aimed at him, already reveals the key: increasing the "effective contribution period" rather than raising the legal age.

Concretely, you would have to work more to validate your retirement quarters. Today, it is not the number of months worked that counts, but a minimum salary received. You only need to work for one month at the gross minimum wage to validate a quarter.

But be careful, only four quarters can be validated during a year. Thus, an employee paid 1,867 euros gross per month (the minimum wage) can validate his four annual quarters by working only four months.

In other words, “four quarters can be validated without having worked twelve months in the year”, observes Jordan Bardella in his book Gouverner, published by Fayard. The president of the RN wants to change this rule to “bring the validation of the quarters closer to the reality of the work and the contributions paid”. In our example, the employee would therefore have to work more than four months to obtain his four quarters.

The objective is to bring the 40 to 42 years needed for a full retirement closer into line with the number of years actually worked. However, the RN has not yet specified the new thresholds that would be applied. A dose of capitalization on a voluntary basis If the idea consists of "gradually strengthening the conditions for validation of a quarter", exceptions will be made to "preserve the periods linked to maternity, illness, disability or life accidents", but also "to maintain the starting facilities for long careers", he specifies.

This measure, presented as "a fair compromise", both "demanding and protective", will not be the only way to finance the return of the legal age to 62 or even 60 years. The RN and its candidate are also banking on an increase in the activity rate, particularly among young people, thanks to a “reform of vocational training and (at) modular college” which should “allow more young people to enter working life earlier”. Companies would also be encouraged to keep seniors at the end of their careers longer, with “net exemptions from contributions, equivalent to a 30% reduction in labor costs”, “part of which” would be “transformed into remuneration” for these “experienced employees”.

Finally, capitalization retirement would be encouraged "on a voluntary basis", via the "creation of a sovereign fund" where "French people who wish can invest part of their savings".

Machine-translated from French