Overview
- The freeze effectively keeps the minimum retirement age at 62 years and nine months until after the 2027 presidential election.
- Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu offered the suspension to win Socialist support and steady his fragile minority government.
- Concessions on pensions and other measures are likely to undercut the target of cutting the deficit by €30 billion, with no revised estimates published.
- The provision sits inside the social security budget that now goes to the Senate, where substantial amendments are anticipated before a final lower-house vote.
- Macron’s party indicated it would abstain rather than oppose, while left allies remain divided and hardliners on the right and left continue to push for new elections.