Macron backpedals on retirement age to appeal to working class voters on the left

French president Emmanuel Macron says he is prepared to readjust his pension reform at the core of his programme for re-election, and reconsider his proposed minimum retirement age of 65.

French President Emmanuel Macron campaigns for re-election in Denain, northern France, the day after he qualified for the second round. He said he was willing to shift the timeline of his controversial pension reform, if it causes too much tension. © Lewis Joly/Pool via Reuters

"I am ready to move the timeline and say we don't necessarily do a reform by 2030 if I feel too much anxiety from people," Macron said on Monday on a campaign stop in the Pas-de-Calais, in the north of the country, which voted overwhelmingly for his opponent, far-right Marine Le Pen, in the first round of the election on Sunday.

“You cannot say on Sunday evening ‘I want to bring people together' and then go listen to people and say 'I'm not budging',” he said, adding that he was prepared to "open the door" on pushing the retirement age from 62 at the moment to 64, instead of 65, as he originally proposed.

"65 years old is not a dogma,” he said.

Le Pen said the President's words are a "manipulation", to win over left-leaning voters, and nothing keeps him from executing his original plan if he is re-elected.

"There is nothing to expect here from Emmanuel Macron. He will go all the way to the end with obsession, because it's a reality that the minimum age [of retirement] of 65 is his obsession", she told France Info radio on Tuesday.

• The policies: what the second-round candidates, Le Pen and Macron, stand for

Le Pen and Macron face off on 24 April in the second round of the election, and have two weeks to win over voters for hard-left Jean-Luc Melenchon, who came in third in the first round.

Melenchon’s supporters must decide whether to vote for the far right on for the President, who many of them consider the "president of the rich".

Macron tried to push through a reform of the pension system in 2019, and faced intense opposition from people convinced the measures will gut working-class pensions.

He set aside the reform with the advent of the Covid pandemic, and has promised to revisit it in his second term.

• Poll shows majority of French want Macron's pension reform back on the table
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Melenchon’s campaign manager, Manuel Bompard, said he did not agree with either Macron's or Le Pen's retirement proposals.

"I tell Macron this: If he really wants to appeal to our voters... he has to make a clear commitment," he told Public Senat television.

He raised the possibility, mentioned by Macron, of a national referendum on the minimum retirement age.

Read more:

• RFI's coverage of the 2022 presidential election

(with wires)