President Emmanuel Macron braved strikes and street protests to force through a deeply unpopular reform in 2023 raising France's retirement age by two years to 64, saying it was the only way to keep the generous but costly pension system afloat.

Bayrou said the actual gap between contributions from workers and employers and payouts was as much as 45 billion euros annually, disregarding taxpayer-funded subsidies that are used to narrow the deficit.