By Elizabeth Pineau
PARIS (Reuters) -French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou said on Thursday he would submit legislation on pensions in the autumn to take into account agreements made in talks between unions and employers during months of talks.
Bayrou said unions and employers’ federations had agreed during four months of negotiations that the pension system should break even by the end of the decade and agreed not to roll back a 2023 reform that gradually raises the retirement age from 62 to 64.
He gave unions and employers another 10 days to work out remaining sticking points, mainly about early retirement conditions for physically taxing jobs.
“There will be other improvements over time, but in any case the text, including all its agreements, will be submitted to parliament in the autumn as part of the social security finance bill,” Bayrou said in a press conference.
Bayrou is struggling to overcome political divisions as he prepares to present plans next month for 40 billion euros ($46.79 billion) in spending cuts for the 2026 budget, and faces a possible no-confidence vote over pensions.
The 2023 pension reform triggered weeks of protests, and opposition parties on the left and far-right have wanted to get it scrapped after a snap legislative election last year delivered a hung parliament.
Bayrou, a veteran centrist, agreed earlier this year to reopen the subject as a way to win tacit support from Socialist lawmakers to survive no-confidence votes from other opposition parties.
The Socialists introduced a no-confidence motion to parliament on Wednesday, accusing Bayrou of not keeping his promise to put a new pension bill to a vote.
The motion is due to go before lawmakers next week, but is unlikely to topple Bayrou’s government, as the far right National Rally, the biggest party in the lower house, has indicated it would not support it.
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(Reporting by Leigh Thomas and Makini Brice; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Paul Simao)
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