National Assembly suspends increase in standard retirement age.

On 12 October, the French National Assembly voted 255 to 146 to suspend the planned reform raising the retirement age for a full pension (pension à taux plein) to 64 years by January 2028. A final decision has thus been postponed until after the 2027 presidential election. The planned increase of the standard retirement age (Âge d’équilibre) from 67 to 68 years for those who have not completed the required contribution period for a full pension has also been put on hold. For the suspension of the increase to take effect, it must still be approved by the Senate.

Political compromise to stabilise France

This decision represented a key concession by the government of Sébastien Lecornu to secure the Socialist Party’s support in parliamentary budget negotiations. The resolution also includes special provisions for early retirement in particularly demanding professions, such as the police and fire service. However, the increase in the required contribution period for receiving a full pension from the current 42 years and six months to 43 years for those born in 1965 or later will not be suspended. This decision is intended to ensure that a decision on raising the retirement age will not be made until after the regular presidential election in April 2027.

With the partial suspension of the pension reform, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has met the Socialists' main condition for not participating in the no-confidence votes of the other opposition parties. The Lecornu government does not have a majority in the National Assembly and is dependent on the support of the Socialists to pass the budget for 2026. Raising the retirement age required for a full pension is the most controversial aspect of the 2023 pension reform and could only be pushed through by the Borne government by invoking Article 49.3 of the Constitution, that is, without the approval of Parliament.

Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu announced that he would pass the budget without resorting to Article 49.3. In addition, he wants to build trust by suspending the pension reform and enable a debate on pension policy without further increasing social tensions.

France under EU scrutiny

The European Union (EU) has launched an ‘excessive deficit procedure’ against France. This procedure, a mechanism of the Stability and Growth Pact, requires member states to correct high deficits and debt levels. In 2024, France's debt ratio stood at 113 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), well above the target of 60 per cent. By way of comparison, Germany's debt ratio was 62.5 per cent of GDP. At 5.8 per cent of GDP, the government deficit was also above the European target (in Germany it was 2.5 per cent of GDP). According to the Council decision of 21 January 2025, France is required to reduce its “excessive deficit” by strictly limiting the growth of national expenditure until 2029. For the 2026 budget, Lecornu’s government is targeting a deficit of 4.7 per cent of GDP.

The cost of suspending the reform is expected to amount to 300 million euros next year and 1.9 billion euros in 2027. The government intends to offset this through other austerity measures in the current budget negotiations.

France is not an isolated case

Raising the statutory retirement age is not only controversial in France. In Italy, for example, there is discussion about suspending this increase. In 2011, the Monti government introduced a comprehensive pension reform (Riforma delle pensioni Fornero) in response to rising public debt, making the statutory retirement age automatically linked to life expectancy. Implementation of the law in 2012 and 2013 triggered strikes and protests. At present, Italian Finance Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti has expressed openness to a two-year freeze of the automatic adjustment mechanism linking retirement age to life expectancy. In Poland, the PiS government elected in 2019 reversed the previous administration’s controversial increase of the retirement age to 67 and lowered it to 60 for women and 65 for men.

By contrast, Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands and Denmark have managed to raise the statutory retirement age within a broad social consensus involving the social partners. In Germany, the Rürup Commission was also able to achieve such a consensus on pensions in 2005.