France's Le Pen seeks to square pension promises with budget reality

Detailed summary

PARIS, Nov 13 - France's far-right National Rally (RN) will present its pension plans next Tuesday as it seeks to convince increasingly nervous investors that its programme will…

PARIS, Nov 13 - France's far-right National Rally (RN) will present its pension plans next Tuesday as it seeks to convince increasingly nervous investors that its programme will be affordable if, as opinion polls suggest, it takes power in five months' time.

Marine Le Pen's party is seeking to uphold its promise of allowing workers who started young to retire at 60 while limiting the costs of unwinding President Emmanuel Macron's unpopular pension overhaul.

Pensions are among France's most politically explosive issues and investors are watching closely for a commitment to raise the retirement age as a sign of fiscal discipline at a time of strained public finances and bond market jitters.

Le Pen said last month she would wring €140 billion ($155 billion) in savings out of France's budget by the end of the next presidential term in 2032, but has struggled to convince economists and investors that such cuts are achievable.

She has said her pension reforms would save €15 billion to 20 billion a year once fully implemented, a target that could prove hard to achieve if she sticks to longstanding promises to let workers who started particularly young retire at 60.

Le Pen, tipped to win the presidential election in the spring, has also pledged to repeal Macron's 2023 reform that would gradually raise the retirement age to 64 from 62.

Macron's overhaul triggered months of protests and left a large share of voters hostile to the reform. The government suspended the plan last year as part of a deal with Socialists to secure parliamentary backing for its budget.

"None of the pension reforms implemented over the last 15 or 20 years have managed to fix the system. So what we want to do is to fix the system," RN party president Jordan Bardella said this week.

Pensions are by far France's single biggest public expense, set to reach €436 billion next year, or 14% of economic output, and politicians have long been reluctant to pass any measures that would hurt pensioners' purchasing power.

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