The president, who is facing a tough campaign for a second term against far-right leader Marin Le Pen, has said he will consider adjusting the timing and age of the controversial pension reform. “I am ready to change the timetable and say that we do not necessarily need to do the reform by 2030 if I feel that people are very worried about it,” Macron said in northern France. He added that he was also willing to consider raising the official retirement age to 64 instead of 65. “I will open the door if that means consent,” he added. Macron had pledged to implement pension reforms during the first five years of his term, leading to widespread protests and strikes. He was a pillar of the campaign for his re-election. Retirement and pensions are burning issues in France. The current retirement age is 62, and Macron has argued that with people living longer, France’s pension system, which relies on those who work, pays directly for those who have stopped, and cannot be financially balanced without reform. His original proposal called for raising the retirement age by four months each year to 65 by 2032. Le Pen said she would keep France’s retirement age to 60 for those who started working at a young age. On Monday, Macron said other options could be considered and special attention would be paid to those in difficult and arduous jobs. “I can not say that I want to unite people and listen, and then when I hear people say that, I do not move,” he told BFMTV. “If I want to unite people, I have to listen.” In an interview with BFMTV following a visit to Le Pen’s territory in France’s post-industrial rust zone on Monday, Macron, who is campaigning in eastern France on Tuesday, said he would call the other 10 candidates who lost in the first round. . “I am the president of all the French and I want to talk to everyone. “The country is divided,” Macron said. Finance Minister Bruno Lemerre insisted that Macron had not backed down on pension reform and was still determined to push it forward. “There will be an option to discuss details,” Le Maire said. On Tuesday, former Conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy announced he would vote for Macron in the second round. On Monday, France’s largest union, the Confédération Française Démocratique du Travail (CFDT), and MEDEF, the business leaders’ organization, called on both members to support Macron. In the first round vote on Sunday, Macron garnered 28% and Le Pen 23%, advancing to the second round, a repeat of 2017. Candidates will take part in a debate next week. Macron and Le Pen face the challenge of convincing almost half of the electorate who did not vote for either, especially those on the left who came out strongly in support of the radical left-wing candidate Jean-Luc Melanson. After Sunday’s first round of voting, Melanson called on his supporters not to give “a single vote” to Le Pen, but did not support Macron. Many left-wing voters orphaned from the run-off election said they would stay home for the run-off on April 24. On FranceInter radio on Tuesday morning, Le Pen, whose program is anti-immigration, anti-European Union and anti-economic protectionism, said Melanson had “betrayed” his voters by making a statement on election night. And he accused Macron of being “obsessed” with pensions. “It’s all he talks about,” he said. Le Pen focuses on what the polls show to be the main concern of French voters, the rising cost of living and especially the rise in fuel and food prices. He also said he wanted to be “president of all the French” and promised a “national unity” government, including ministers from the left and right if elected. Le Pen denied that her plan to form an “alliance of European nations” was a “Frexit”, but added: “I do not think the vast majority (of the French) want the European Union as it is now. It is anti-democratic and operates with threats and blackmail against the interests of the (French) people and our economy. “We are in favor of European countries cooperating with other European countries.” He said to suggest that this was Frexit disguised as “absolute rubbish”. “I have no hidden work,” he said. Marine Le Pen visits a grain farm in Burgundy as part of her campaign for the second round of the French presidential election. Photo: Alain ROBERT / Sipa / Rex / Shutterstock Lepen also denied being a “Trojan horse for Russia”, insisting she had backed financial sanctions against Moscow over Russia’s war in Ukraine. The National Front, as its party was then called, secured a 9m-euro loan from a Russian bank to finance its 2017 presidential bid, which it is still repaying. The party, now the Rassemblement National, was the only party in France to support Russian annexation of Crimea. Her campaign leaflet contained a photo of Le Pen with Vladimir Putin in Moscow, although she has since condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine. On Tuesday, she also defended one of her most controversial campaign commitments. to ban the Islamic headscarf in public places. “The headscarf is an Islamic uniform and not a Muslim uniform. “It’s the uniform of an ideology and not a religion,” he told FranceInter. Asked if this would mean banning other religious symbols such as the kipur or the cross, he said: “This ban will not be based on the principles of secularism, but will be based on the law to combat Islamic extremism, which is a totalitarian ideology.” She also rejected proposals that far-right presidential candidate Eric Zemour could join her group. “He does not want to and I do not want to,” he said. “I have all the teams I need. I could form four or five. “I know who my prime minister will be, but I do not say.”
