On Monday, January 30, the deputies kick off the debates in committee on the highly contested pension reform project. If the oppositions are more and more raised, the government displays on its side an unfailing firmness. From 9:30 a.m., around sixty parliamentarians from the Social Affairs Committee worked, article by article, on the text which provides for a decline in the legal age from 62 to 64 and an acceleration of the extension of the duration of contribution, before the test in the hemicycle, from February 6, on the flagship reform of Macron’s second five-year term.
The elected representatives of the Nupes left alliance came in large numbers, so much so that some had to settle between LR and RN, for lack of places on the left. “Many of us want to co-build,” said the rebellious Hadrien Clouet, sparking laughter in the room of the Social Affairs Committee. The atmosphere is somewhat dissipated and the speakers have struggled to be heard. “If you want, I have a megaphone”, suggested an elected Nupes, on the eve of a second national day of mobilization of opponents.
Socialist Arthur Delaporte immediately called for “additional days” of review, as some 7,000 amendments were tabled – including 6,000 from the left – and the committee will complete its work on Wednesday evening. But 28 hours in total in committee is “a considerable time,” retorted committee chair Fadila Khattabi (Renaissance).
“We really want to work”, but it will be “extremely complicated” to overcome the amendments, “even impossible”, lamented Sylvain Maillard (Renaissance), one of the leaders of the presidential majority. Anyway, the reform project, which takes the form of an amending budget for the Secu, will be examined in the hemicycle from February 6, for two weeks.
LFI coordinator Manuel Bompard criticized Elisabeth Borne for “puffing out his chest”, adding: “They want to force their way through, so the best response will be millions of people in the streets on Tuesday”. Even LR executive vice-president Aurélien Pradié criticized the Prime Minister’s “chin blow” and “agitator” Gérald Darmanin who throws “fuel on the fire”.
Since Sunday, the tone has frankly gone up a notch after the declarations of the Prime Minister, Élisabeth Borne, assuring that the postponement of the retirement age is “no longer negotiable”, and that of the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, accusing the Nupes of wanting to “maroon the country”. From her stronghold of Hénin-Beaumont (Pas-de-Calais), the patron saint of deputies, RN Marine Le Pen, warned the Prime Minister who “should not go too far, because, party like this is gone, it is not at all impossible that his pension reform will not be voted on”.
The left curries a “solitary, unjust and unjustified” project, even “anti-women”. Its elected officials oppose the 64-year-old as a whole and refuse to obstruct, avoiding purely formal amendments. “We are going to adapt our tactics as we go along, we want article 7 to be discussed” on age, indicates the Insoumise Clémentine Autain. RN deputies fight the postponement of the age, but reserve their forces for the hemicycle.
For its part, the right, whose votes are crucial for the text to be adopted, is raising the stakes. The LRs have demands for women with cut careers, those who started working at 20, on family rights and yet another postponement of the entry into force of the reform. The presidential majority is not to be outdone, but has been asked to curb its ardor to maintain the financial balance of the reform. However, the idea of ??stronger constraints around the employment of seniors in large companies is gaining ground at Renaissance.
In committee, the LR deputies unsuccessfully defended a first amendment, to add a section on “the value of work in our country” to this bill deemed “narrow”.
Whether or not it is adopted in committee, the project will be presented in session on February 6. It is the initial version that will be submitted, without the amendments adopted in committee. This is the rule for budgetary texts. Two weeks of exchanges are scheduled in the hemicycle, with in the arena the Ministers of Labor Olivier Dussopt and Public Accounts Gabriel Attal, facing deputies promising to “hold the trench”.