“Be attentive to the most vulnerable among us”: the President of the National Assembly Yaël Braun-Pivet calls for the preservation of “small pensions”

La présidente de l'Assemblée nationale, Yaël Braun-Pivet, s'est dit attachée à ne pas “précariser davantage” les retraités aux pensions les plus basses (photo d'illustration). jacoblund – ENVATO ELEMENTS

The President of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, called on Sunday, October 6, 2024, to preserve “small pensions” from the postponement of the pension revaluation, one of the savings measures of Michel Barnier's government.

“We must be attentive to the most vulnerable among us. And so concerning the smallest pensions, I think that we should not delay on their indexation because we know that small pensioners have difficulty making ends meet”, warned the deputy Renaissance des Yvelines on BFMTV.

The government is considering postponing the indexation of pensions to inflation by 6 months, from January 1 to July 1, 2025, which would save 4 billion euros out of the 60 billion savings envisaged in the budget.

But Prime Minister Michel Barnier said he was “open” to other solutions from the deputies during the budget debates of autumn.

“Do not make things more precarious”

“I think that the most well-off retirees could indeed be called upon to contribute (…) but I believe that we should not touch small pensions”, warned Yaël Braun-Pivet, who is committed to not “further insecurity” retirees with the lowest pensions.

The rebellious president of the Finance Committee of the National Assembly, Éric Coquerel, said he was opposed to this government proposal, believing that “retirees should be exempt”.

“Reducing the income of retirees is not only an injustice, but it is economic nonsense”, he continued on RTL. “That means you are taking four billion away from popular consumption”.

Article 49.3, “it will be free or not to use”

On the probable difficulties in having the 2025 budget adopted by a fragmented National Assembly, Ms. Braun-Pivet stated that she “did not rule out the hypothesis that the budget could be voted on in the National Assembly “national”.

While remaining aware of the likelihood of seeing the government use article 49.3 of the Constitution to have it adopted without a vote, even if it means exposing itself to a motion of censure.

Michel Barnier “is right not to rule it out. It is a tool that is at its disposal and if necessary, it will be free or not – it is its assessment – to use it”, she estimated.