The president of the Retirement Orientation Council (COR), Pierre-Louis Bras, is preparing to leave his functions “after nine years at the helm”, Matignon announced this Wednesday, October 25, confirming information from World. His successor should be named at the next Council of Ministers which should be held in the week of October 30.
“He has held this responsibility for almost nine years. We believe that it is the right time to carry out a renewal, shortly after the pension reform and when several qualified personalities are likely to join the COR,” argued Matignon to our colleagues at World.
His departure “is not a sanction”, according to Matignon
If the Prime Minister’s entourage assures that it is not a “sanction”, the COR and its president had been strongly criticized during the debate on pension reform by the presidential camp. The executive accuses him in particular of putting the scale of future deficits into perspective.
“The president of the COR pays for his interventions and comments during the implementation of the pension reform,” Michel Beaugas, FO confederal secretary in charge of employment, and member of the COR, told AFP.
Same story with Denis Gravouil, member of the CGT confederal office responsible for employment issues, who believes that “Pierre-Louis Bras pays for his independence of mind”. “The government is emptying out all the voices that do not go in its direction,” adds Denis Gravouil, who described the departure of Pierre-Louis Bras as a “democratic scandal on the same level as 49.3.”
A relationship damaged by pension reform
And for good reason, while thousands of people were mobilizing almost weekly against the highly contested reform, the head of government had criticized Pierre-Louis Bras for having “confused the minds” of the French in an interview given to Parisian on April 9.
A direct reference to the remarks made on January 19 at the Palais Bourbon by the president of the COR, who had crushed the government’s arguments by assuring that “pension expenses are generally stabilized and even in the very long term”, and that they are “decreasing in three out of four hypotheses. Enough to annoy an executive already entangled in a series of controversies, largely sparked by the communication missteps of members of the presidential camp.