French PM to suspend Macron's flagship pension reform till 2027

French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu promised on Tuesday to suspend a landmark pension reform until after the 2027 election, sacrificing one of President Emmanuel Macron's legacy achievements to ensure the government's survival.

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By bowing to pressure from leftist lawmakers who revile the 2023 reform, Lecornu has managed to stave off a stark escalation in France's months-long political crisis.

The Socialists welcomed his concession, saying they would not vote to topple him in no-confidence votes on Thursday, meaning Lecornu will almost certainly live to fight another day.

Lecornu’s proposal to mothball the pension overhaul threatens to kill off one of Macron’s main economic legacies at a time when France’s public finances are in a perilous state, leaving him with little in the way of domestic achievements after eight years in office.

France has been mired in its worst political crisis in decades as a succession of minority governments have sought to push deficit-reducing budgets through a truculent legislature split into three distinct ideological blocs.

Lecornu, Macron’s sixth prime minister in less than two years, announced the suspension in parliament as part of a last-ditch attempt to pass a slimmed-down 2026 budget.

“I will propose to parliament, starting this autumn, that we suspend the 2023 pension reform until the presidential election,” Lecornu told lawmakers. “No increase in the retirement age will take place from now until January 2028.”