In the confusion, the Assembly concluded Friday at midnight, without a vote, the examination at first reading of the pension reform project, on yet another imbroglio about long careers, the examination of the text now having to continue in the Senate .
The deputies then largely rejected a motion of censure tabled by the National Rally. In the preamble, Marine Le Pen had denounced “a project (…) badly carried out and badly explained”.
In a sparse hemicycle, Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne retorted that the debate had shown the faces of “two populisms”, those of the far right and insubordinate France (LFI).
The debate on Emmanuel Macron’s flagship reform ended as planned at midnight sharp, due to the accelerated legislative procedure.
“The government will refer to the Senate the text it initially presented, modified by the amendments voted on,” announced Labor Minister Olivier Dussopt.
Elisabeth Borne announced that the government would retain measures favorable to primary school teachers, the liberal professions, agricultural pensions, retirees in Mayotte, and “long careers”.
The culmination of two weeks of debates at best tense, at worst chaotic, Olivier Dussopt reserved his last words for the rebellious: “You insulted me for 15 days, no one cracked and we are here, in front of you, to the reform”, he launched, furious.
Some LFI deputies came out singing “we are here, we are there”, before deputies from the majority, the right and the RN sang a Marseillaise.
“Macron in check in the Assembly. Retirement at 64 has not passed”, reacted even before the end of the debates the leader of LFI Jean-Luc Mélenchon. “This reform has no parliamentary legitimacy”, added the president of the group Mathilde Panot.
Unsurprisingly given the number of remaining amendments, mainly rebellious, and the deadline set at midnight, the debates were interrupted very far from the famous article 7 on the postponement of the legal age to 64 years.
Throughout the evening, the discussion focused on the contribution period for retirees who can benefit from the “long career” scheme, that is to say those who entered the world of work before the age of 21.
Forty-three or 44? The question has not been clearly resolved, despite the insistence of LR deputies, led by Aurélien Pradié, who demand that all the workers concerned can leave after 43 years of contributions, without the legal age being a barrier.
“I will never say before the National Assembly that the contribution period would be a ceiling”, declared Olivier Dussopt, believing that it would be “lying”.
“We cannot come out of all this with doubts,” replied Aurélien Pradié, asking for a clear position.
The parliamentary left is divided on the strategy to adopt, environmentalists regretting to AFP “a strategic failure” of LFI.
“I regret that a number of Nupes groups have somehow chosen to abandon their amendments, to give up the battle and to leave us alone to hold out until the end”, declared for his part the rebellious Manual Bompard.
The unions were urging the left alliance to go through with this key article of the reform bill.
“The national assembly gives a sorry spectacle, in contempt of the workers. Shameful”, reacted in the evening the general secretary of the CFDT Laurent Berger.
The latest demonstrations gathered Thursday 1.3 million people according to the CGT and 440,000 according to the Interior.
This is the lowest figure since the start of the mobilization, pending March 7 when the unions threaten to put the country “at a standstill” if the government does not withdraw the reform.
The CGT called Friday for a renewable strike in the refineries from Monday, March 6.
On the left, attention is focused on these upcoming mobilizations.
“We think of the social movement. I hope that the sequence will not weaken it. In 2020 we were exhausted but proud, there not”, blows a source within the communist group.
“On March 7, we will make you bend,” promised Matthias Tavel (LFI).
In the hemicycle, the tone had already risen between the government and the RN, Marine Le Pen accusing the executive of having the “objective” of “lowering” the incomes of retirees, which Gabriel Attal challenged, the Minister of Public Accounts.
“You have no solution to offer (…) the French see it,” he accused.
“The challenge is who will impose his story,” said an elected Renaissance representative, as it seems difficult to say who from the government or the opposition emerges strengthened from this first parliamentary round. The Senate will take up the text from February 28 in committee.
bur-parl/mlb
02/18/2023 03:07:24 – Paris (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
