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PARIS — As Jordan Bardella edges closer to possibly replacing Marine Le Pen as France’s far-right presidential candidate, he is taking aim at one of her key economic promises.
Le Pen has made the preservation of France’s generous pension system a major campaign issue, pledging to roll back President Emmanuel Macron’s reforms and keep the country’s legal retirement age at 62. Bardella has suggested that policy should be up for debate.
Officials close to Bardella are now studying a plan to scrap a rule allowing individuals to retire on a full pension at 67, even if they haven’t paid in long enough to otherwise qualify, according to two National Rally party officials. Instead, workers would have to wait until they’ve contributed for 42 years, or opt to retire with a lower pension.
The pension issue is sharpening tensions between Le Pen’s old guard, worried about losing the party’s working-class base, and officials close to Bardella who argue the party needs to boost its economic credibility and win over moderate voters worried about France’s crumbling finances .
The split has become more urgent ahead of July 7, when an appeals court is due to decide whether to uphold Le Pen’s conviction for embezzling EU funds and the accompanying five-year ban on holding electoral office.
Le Pen has said that if she is unable to run, Bardella will be the party’s candidate in next year’s presidential election.
People participate in a demonstration about pensions, in Lyon, France on June 5, 2025. | Matthieu Delaty/Hans Lucas via AFP
In the current system, French workers can claim a full state pension from age 62 and 9 months, rising gradually to 64 under Macron’s reform, if they have paid into the system long enough. Those who have not reached the required contribution period can still claim a full pension at 67.
Bardella’s allies argue that their proposal would make the system fairer by placing greater emphasis on how long people have paid in rather than on the age at which they retire.
“Currently, the average length of contribution is 39 years,” said one of the National Rally officials. “Everybody knows the system is not viable.” The average length of contribution was 39.2 years for people born in 1950, according to government data .
Dividing line
Last month, Bardella caught some of Le Pen’s top lieutenants off guard by questioning whether retirement age should remain the party’s central measure of fairness on pensions.
“The retirement age means nothing,” he said on French television channel LCI . “To make the system much clearer and much fairer, we need to look at the number of years of contributions. That’s what matters. I think we’d be better off simplifying things and building a system that places greater emphasis on the length of contribution.”
In both Le Pen’s and Bardella’s circles, pensions are seen as one of the most urgent questions to settle after the July 7 court ruling on Le Pen’s political future. The party is expected to unveil its full presidential platform in the fall.
“Pensions are sacred,” said National Rally MP Sébastien Chenu, a top Le Pen lieutenant, when pressed on Bardella’s comments earlier this month. “It’s something we built together.”
Last week, Le Pen herself weighed in, telling France Culture radio she wanted “a fair reform,” and that a legal retirement age of 62 was still part of that. But, she added, “there are injustices.”
“Someone who started at age 30 pays into the system for 37 years, that’s not quite right,” she said, signaling an apparent openness on the issue of full pension age.
One key question is who would be hit hardest by such a change. Data recently analyzed by researchers at the Public Policy Institute suggest it would affect primarily low-skilled workers whose careers have been interrupted by periods of unemployment and, to a lesser extent, executives and self-employed workers who entered the labor market late after extended studies.
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