Prime Minister suspends controversial unemployment insurance reform

Just hours after the results of the first round of France’s early parliamentary elections were announced, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal decided to “suspend the implementation of the unemployment insurance reform,” a member of his entourage told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Sunday evening, June 30. This backtracking underlines the government’s failure, as the Ensemble presidential coalition only came third in the first round of the early elections, far behind the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party and the left-wing Nouveau Front Populaire alliance. “First victory for RN voters! When the people vote, the people win!” wrote RN leader Marine Le Pen on X on Sunday evening.

Criticized by French unions and numerous political parties – from the left to the RN and even the center-right – the unemployment insurance reform was originally supposed to be the subject of a decree to be published in the French Official Journal before June 30, the date on which the current unemployment insurance provisions would expire. On Friday, the Ministry of Labor announced that this would ultimately not be the case and that the provisions would be extended until July 1.

To avoid a lawless environment – since the current unemployment insurance regulations were only supposed to remain in force until Sunday – a decree extending these rules was published in the Official Gazette on Monday, the Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministry of Labor said.

To pull back

This decision ends a month of government hesitation. Since the dissolution of the National Assembly, the government had been under pressure to drop its reform, but had refused to give in. On June 13, the Prime Minister assured that “a decree would be issued by July 1” to implement the law. The day before, Macron had remained a little more vague at a press conference, suggesting that he had thought about the issue to take into account the “electoral period”: “It will have to be taken up again later. Must it be done through the National Assembly? Must it be done by decree? We will see the day after (after the election).”

The reform was intended to significantly tighten the conditions under which jobseekers would be entitled to unemployment benefits from 1 December. The law would have increased the number of months of work required to receive unemployment benefits to 8 of the last 20 months (as opposed to 6 of the last 24 months as is currently the case for jobseekers who are not considered pensioners). The duration of unemployment benefits would have been reduced from 18 to 15 months (with more favourable rules for those aged 57 and over). The measure was expected to save the government €3.6 billion annually.