The government, determined not to use article 49.3, was more than ever, Monday, at the mercy of right-wing voices to pass its pension reform. The parliamentary epilogue is looming and the mobilization seems to be running out of steam even if blockages persist.
“Today, we do not see why it would be necessary to use 49.3”, assured Gabriel Attal, the Minister Delegate for Public Accounts, on France Inter. “If everyone is consistent with the commitments, the statements he made before the French […] there is a majority to vote for the text. »
A speech also hammered on LCI by the government spokesman, Olivier Véran: it is not “a tool that we would have in the pocket, ready to draw”.
To be forced to use this article would be perceived as a devastating political sign, likely to stir up social tensions. Especially since, on this very controversial reform, the government has already chosen to limit the debate in Parliament to 50 days and to draw in the Senate a tool allowing it to vote blocked on the entire text.
In this inflammable context, after the green light on Saturday from the Senate in favor of the government’s project, the hunt for votes remains crucial for the executive. “I’m not going to give you the precise calculation” of the expected votes, said Olivier Véran.
In the majority camp (Renaissance, Horizons and MoDem), “if we lacked votes, it would be truly anecdotal, we have the conditions so that we do not lack [any]”, he said. assured, despite the reluctance displayed by several parliamentarians.
But uncertainty still reigned over the vote of several LR deputies. And the negotiations will continue during this decisive week: on Wednesday, they will be in full swing in a joint joint committee (7 deputies and 7 senators) in the hope that the National Assembly and the Senate will reach an agreement, which will then have to be validated on Thursday.
The Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire does not hesitate to put pressure on his former party, Les Républicains. “It would be crazy to have a party that votes for a text in the Senate and does not vote for it in the National Assembly,” he said on France Info.
He also recalled that certain concessions on the long careers made to the LRs under the impulse of the deputy Aurélien Pradié could not be found in the final text. According to a source within the executive, Matignon should bring together the majority parliamentarians at the end of the afternoon to prepare the ground.
On the side of the oppositions, the possible recourse to 49.3 would in any case be considered as a casus belli. Discussions are already underway to table “motions of censure”, warned on France Info the centrist deputy (LIOT) Charles de Courson. It would be a “terrible admission of failure of this government”, warned the president of the environmental group in the Senate, Guillaume Gontard, the boss of the CFDT Laurent Berger denouncing “a form of democratic vice”.
On the social front, the mobilization ran out of steam on Saturday, the seventh day of action organized by the inter-union. And the French, still mostly hostile to the reform, are now convinced that it will be voted on and applied, according to the latest polls. Train traffic is “significantly improving”, but remains disrupted on most lines, SNCF management said. Three out of five inOui and Ouigo TGVs are expected to run and traffic will be “severely disrupted” at the regional level, with one out of two TER trains on average.
The strike continues in several refineries, in particular that of Esso-ExxonMobil in Fos-sur-Mer and PétroIneos in Lavera (Bouches-du-Rhône). On the other hand, uncertainty weighs on the continuation of the movement in that of TotalEnergies in Normandy, the largest in France, and that of Feyzin (Rhône). In the meantime, mounds of garbage cans piled up in several cities in France. In Paris, 5,400 tons of waste remained uncollected on Sunday, according to the town hall.
