Pension reform back on track: “It's a de facto suspension” says constitutionalist Dominique Rousseau

Lawyer and professor of constitutional law Dominique Rousseau. Midi Libre – SYLVIE CAMBON

Dominique Rousseau, lawyer and professor of constitutional law, looks back at the Prime Minister's main announcement during his general policy speech on Tuesday.

How do you judge François Bayrou's announcement to “restart” the pension reform without suspending or repealing it ?

The government can issue implementing decrees that would postpone the date of application of an article, or several articles.

But it cannot issue a decree that would suspend the entire reform ?

No. The law has been passed and only another law can undo what a law has done. That is the first principle. The law was passed in April 2023, implementing decrees were issued in June 2023.

What the government could do, for example, is to issue a decree that delays, that defers by a few months, the application of the article of the law that sets the legal retirement age, in order to allow for negotiations.

You take the example of the legal age because it is the major issue on this subject ?

This is the key issue, yes. The Prime Minister said that he was reworking the law, without taboos, on all themes.

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That is to say that the word suspension was not mentioned, but the thing is there, since the government gave the social partners until April to agree on a different retirement system than the one defined by the law.

So, it is a suspension without the word being mentioned, because it annoys. In the same way that we no longer say blind but visually impaired, here, we are not saying suspension, but a complete overhaul of the entire reform. This is a de facto suspension.

During which the law nevertheless continues to apply ?

The Borne reform continues to apply. So, what has been done remains acquired. There is no retroactivity, and, in any case, the next step does not occur before October 1 (with the change to 62 years and nine months for the 1963 generation, Editor's note).

The law therefore still exists, but since there is a complete overhaul without totem or taboo, including on the retirement age, as the Prime Minister expressed it, this means that everything can be renegotiated during these three months, including the retirement age, by the social partners.

And if they reach an agreement after three months, their agreement will be transformed into law and will therefore replace the current law. We are in a situation that could resemble the national interprofessional agreement.

The national interprofessional agreement was negotiated by the unions and employers' organizations. It was signed by all the unions of employees and employers, except the CGT, and was then transformed into law. That was in 2006. This is the plan that the government is proposing.

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