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French presidential hopeful Melenchon pledges minimum wage rise, retirement at 60
(www.straitstimes.com)
this post was submitted on 07 Nov 2026
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Retired French people now have higher incomes than working people. France already has near the lowest retirement age in Europe. It's 70 for me in Denmark and it frequently gets later as medical technology and expected lifespans are projected to increase.
For context, France faces a severe and worsening structural debt problem. Public debt recently reached β¬3.6 trillion (119% of GDP), compared to 60% in 2000 and 98% in 2019. It's getting much worse, very fast. They recorded a β¬152 billion deficit (5.1% of GDP) in 2025, while government expenditure consumed 57.3% of GDP. This is spooking the bond markets, so the cost of financing is skyrocketing. A 10-year French bond yields reached 4.76% a few days ago. Annual public-sector interest costs are projected to rise from β¬79.2 billion in 2026 to β¬91.2 billion in 2027.
Maybe they could survive this with massive and immediate spending cuts but they also have a demographic crisis. 22.2% of French residents are now 65 or older, versus 16.4% in 2006, while fertility has fallen to just 1.56 children per woman, its lowest level since the First World War. This aging population increases pension and healthcare pressures relative to the working-age population. Lowering retirement to 60 is basically a direct promise to cause runaway inflation and a debt crisis, culminating in a bailout by the IMF and Greek-level austerity measures.
I'm not making any of this up. All of this is publically reported.
France had a chance to be moderate on finances but they fucked it up so badly over so many decades that there is no moderate path anymore. I suspect they're going to drive the car off the cliff and complain when they're forced to cut spending under threat of the entire nation collapsing. Surprisingly, things worked out pretty well for Greece, so maybe that's not the end of the world.
Retirement is very unequal. Some barely make it, others can afford multiples trips per years.
Personally, I just want to be able to retire before my heart decide it had enough.
Also: Some barely make it, some get multiple years of retirement. Let's not forget that life expectancy is very much not just a random distribution but heavily correlated to your job and the wealth you enjoyed.
I'm right there with you. I've been on the FIRE path for about a decade. I'm close to being able to retire in my late 30s. It's been hard though, especially in Denmark. I've made a lot of sacrifices, working long hours in jobs I hated. I drive an old car, take modest vacations, and buy second hand stuff. For me the freedom of financial security feels better than any nice car, any nice vacation, or any nice clothes. I want to be able to spend my days reading books, listening to music, and hiking.
Things haven't worked out pretty well for Greece. Its purchasing power per capita is one of the lowest in the EU, still below what it was in 2007, and now way behind Poland. The EU should be ashamed of its failure to help Greece recover.
Greece defaulted because it spent so much more money than it had. They defaulted in 2012, then missed payments to the IMF in 2015. Europe then provided β¬256.6 billion in emergency loans, plus substantial debt relief and banking support.
To characterise this as the fault of Europe betrays a fundamental gap in your understanding of this entire event. No one is disputing that Greece continues to grapple with the problems it created. I was pointing out that it survived and is doing pretty well compared to most other examples of failed states in history.
I didn't claim that the EU caused Greece's decline, I claimed it should be ashamed of its inability to help Greece recover.
There's a big difference between surviving and doing pretty well.
Greece isn't a failed state.