On the subject of pensions, the former Prime Minister, Édouard Philippe, does not cut corners: “collectively, we have a capacity that is absolutely fascinating to tell us stories and not to look at the facts”, has he confessed during the essential Economic Meetings of Aix-en-Provence, reports the newspaper Ouest-France of July 10, 2022.

The Economic Meetings is one of the main meetings in Europe which brings together business leaders, political decision-makers and members of civil society.

The former Prime Minister asks the question directly. What was missing from this “really very smart” but also “very complicated” project? Not much, he quips, insisting on the lack of “simplicity” and modesty that the project would have deserved. A barely veiled allusion to Emmanuel Macron.

Regarding this pension reform, the former elected official remains in favor of “the contribution period and age”. He regrets not having simplified a dense system by reducing the multiple pension plans to three. And even keeping the introduction of a point system.

“Everyone does their therapy as they can. Me, it makes me feel good. “, declares the former Prime Minister to the assembly of experts and does not hesitate to scratch the journalists. “The presentation of journalists is very often so editorialized that the simple analysis of the facts becomes incidental. »

As for the Retirement Orientation Council (COR) created about twenty years ago to guide the decisions of the public authorities on the pension file, it is for Édouard Philippe far from economic realities: “As we do not have wanted to assume the facts, we took increasingly broad and increasingly unrealistic assumptions to keep everyone on board. »

Finally, he fires red balls at economists “The ability of economists to integrate these elements of constraint has not been completely there”, regrets Édouard Philippe in good shape and without waffle.