Jordan Bardella, leader of the right-wing National Rally party (RN), which could win early parliamentary elections, said he would reinstate pensions at 60 for a number of French people.
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“From the autumn of 2024, French people who started working at 20 and worked for 40 years will be able to retire again at 60,” Bardella said, outlining his policy as prime minister if his party wins the election.
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As for the rest of the French, the politician promised to introduce a “progressive calendar” of lowering the retirement age.
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Earlier, the founder of the left-wing party “Unbowed France” Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who may also enter the fight for the position of prime minister, said that the coalition of the left “New People Front” would return the pension to 60 years if it wins the elections.
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The slogan “Pension at 60!” was one of the main participants in the protests against pension reform that took place in France from January to June 2023.
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Mass protests numbered more than a million participants across the country, but in September a law gradually raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 years old came into force.
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In the June 9 elections to the European Parliament in France, the right-wing National Rally party was more than twice as ahead of the coalition of supporters of President Macron, gaining 31.36% of the vote. Macron subsequently announced the dissolution of the National Assembly, the lower house of the French parliament, and the holding of early parliamentary elections in two rounds – June 30 and July 7.
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According to polls, more than a third of French people are ready to vote for the National Rally party, while the presidential coalition may receive less than 20% of the votes.
