Timid progress to reform the pension plan for senators

Accelerate the “convergence” of special regimes against the advice of the government ? The LR senators have made themselves their spokespersons. But aiming for the extinction of their own independent fund – a special scheme in itself – to converge towards the civil service scheme, like the deputies, nothing is less certain.

This is however the subject of a motion for a resolution carried by the environmental group at the Luxembourg Palace which aims to “reform the pension fund of former senators for more exemplary and transparency”. An approach justified by its president, Guillaume Gontard, in an interview with the “JDD”: “In concrete terms, by being a senator for 6 years, i.e. a full term, I will have a much better retirement than if I had continued to work all my life. …”.

Faced with criticism and shortly before the start of the reform in the Senate, the tenors of LR, Bruno Retailleau and Gerard Larcher tried to justify its maintenance without further details on possible areas for improvement. Chance of the agenda, it is article 1 of the reform relating to the special regimes which must be examined first in the upper house.

“Beneficial scheme”

Questioned Thursday on France 2, the president of the Senate, Gérard Larcher, first assured that he wanted to preserve the independence of this system in the name of the “freedom” of parliamentarians. Admittedly, the system is indeed an “advantageous regime which is part of the elected status”, he acknowledges, but “we have already modified it in 2010” to better approach the general regime.

In 2019, the same advanced an average amount of pensions for senators of 3,856 euros per month for a departure age well above the average for the French, even taking into account the shift in the legal age to 64 years. A discrepancy which should then be transposed to the Senate if the reform is voted. Without real impact since the “Sages” would already leave, on average, at the venerable age of 72 years.

“We will apply the reform but we will go further on a certain number of subjects to bring us closer in particular to the large additional systems”, defended this Thursday Gérard Larcher. Without further details. Asked about BFMTV, Bruno Retailleau did not seem more advanced, limiting himself to highlighting the good management of a surplus system.

“Above all, we must not do like the Assembly. For what ? Because the Assembly asks the State to contribute up to 170 million euros per year, repeated the boss of the LR senators. We do not ask for contributions from the State, quite simply because since 2005, we have contributed much more: senators up to 20%, deputies 14%”.

Bring down the pressure

An amendment by the LR deputy from Pas-de-Calais, Pierre-Henri Dumont had also sparked the ire of senators by proposing to align their independent fund with the “common law regime of the public service”. Some in the Senate and inside the LR group imagine that the senatorial right “will finally kick in touch”, the time that social mobilization fades after March 7 .

“We are going to move towards a smoothing to gradually achieve alignment with the rest of the population”, however assures an LR executive, who does not exclude that these speeches were intended to “reduce the pressure” .