“The objective is to achieve full employment”: Prime Minister Gabriel Attal wants to put the French back to work

Gabriel Attal prépare une évolution de l’assurance-chômage. MAXPPP – Lionel VADAM

Guest, Wednesday, on the set of the 20 H newspaper of TF1, the Prime Minister announced that he wanted a reform of unemployment insurance before the summer.

Haro on the unemployed… On Wednesday, the Macronist deputies had been responsible for preparing minds for the Prime Minister's intervention on TF1's 8 p.m. news, and some did so with zeal.

"There are entire families who live off the system. Parents work just long enough to recharge their unemployment rights and then stop. Children who become adults reproduce the model. This has to stop", a Renaissance deputy assured us at lunchtime: a biased picture which has the merit of making the remedies proposed by the head of government seem like sweet potions.

"Less revenue than expected"

Wednesday evening, interviewed by Gilles Bouleau, Gabriel Attal began with an observation: the public deficit rose to 5.5% of GDP. &amp ;quot;The situation is serious", he assured, specifying that’there was no & quot;spending slippage" but above all "less revenue than expected".

However, the government does not intend to give up its objective of falling below the 3% deficit mark in 2027. "We let's keep this objective because an over-indebted country (is not) a free country".

And if he does not close the door to taxation of the richest or of superprofits, he leaves the responsibility to others: "I have never had dogma on the subject of taxation of the super rich and super profits" but, he adds, " I am waiting to see credible proposals from parliamentarians and social partners.

The tenant of Matignon, on the other hand, expresses two red lines: "Do not increase taxes on the middle classes, those who earn too much to have aid and not enough to get by", and not increase taxes for those who create jobs. "What makes it possible to have revenue ? Let more people work. The objective is to achieve full employment, he concludes.

"More flexibility"

Gabriel Attal was in fact invited to the 20H set to lay the first stone of a reform of unemployment insurance that he wants to see lead to ;rsquo;summer so that it comes into force in the fall. "My objective is not to attack the unemployed", he specifies in response to the attacks which are already expressing themselves.

But according to him, and according to the Head of State, only an increase in the number of employees will make it possible to increase tax revenue. To encourage the unemployed to find their way back to employment, Gabriel Attal is considering three options: "Reduce the duration of compensation by several months but not below of 12 months."

"Get out of the box of 35 hours per week"

Another avenue, according to the Prime Minister: "The time one must have worked to benefit from compensation.& quot;

As for the question of the degression of allowances, he leaves it to the social partners to think about it. On the other questions discussed during the government seminar which was held that same morning, Gabriel Attal remained more evasive.

The questioning of the 35 hours mentioned by Bruno the Mayor ? Not a word. On the other hand, he wanted to better organize working time for "more flexibility" in order to "get out of the shackles of 35 hours per week".

"De-Micardize France"

But above all, he did not lose sight of his desire to "de-microcardiate France"& nbsp;by a revision of the "contribution reduction system" in order to encourage employers to increase the remuneration of their employees.

The government knows that these reforms will not produce concrete effects for at least several months. They aim above all to send a message to economic players as the opinions of the rating agencies approach. The Prime Minister also addressed, with a view to the European elections, a Macronist electorate which has become right-wing over the last seven years. « My parents told me: “We want you to be free”", a he confessed at the end of the interview adding: "I want the French to be free. That's why I'm so attached to work."

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