Emmanuel Macron let it be known on Wednesday evening that he wanted a vote on his highly contested pension reform after having achieved an important compromise between deputies and senators, which however did not remove all the uncertainties on the eve of the moment of truth at the National Assembly.
The Head of State met in the evening at the Elysée Palace with Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne and ministers concerned by this reform to prepare for this last high-risk parliamentary sequence.
The Senate must first confirm its positive vote on this reform Thursday morning, which is hardly in doubt. The text will arrive in the afternoon at the National Assembly, where the government is anything but certain of having a majority and could therefore be tempted to draw article 49.3 of the Constitution which allows adoption without a vote.
“Nothing is decided” on this subject, said in the evening a source within the executive.
“The President of the Republic wishes to go to the vote”, assured for his part the Elysée. “We must mobilize all parliamentarians in a spirit of responsibility”, “consultations will continue tomorrow” to ensure the existence of a majority, added those around Emmanuel Macron.
Elisabeth Borne welcomed the compromise found by the senators and deputies meeting on Wednesday within a joint joint committee (CMP). This shows that it is possible “to build solutions for the country together”, she said.
This commission confirmed the main lines of the reform, first of all the postponement of the retirement age from 62 to 64, denounced by the unions and the oppositions of the left and far right.
The leader of the deputies La France insoumise Mathilde Panot denounced “an agreement which was already tied up” and “a lunar atmosphere, as if there were no social movement”.
In the Assembly, the votes of the deputies of the right-wing party Les Républicains, themselves divided, will be crucial on Thursday for the presidential camp which only has a relative majority there.
According to a Macronie executive, “at this stage, we are not going towards a 49.3”, but it is not excluded. The decision to use this constitutional tool, which requires prior deliberation in the Council of Ministers, could be taken until the last minute on Thursday before the start of the Assembly session scheduled for 3:00 p.m.
At the heart of the questions, the decision of several rebels of LR, led by the deputy Aurélien Pradié who conditions his positive vote on the registration without ambiguity of a maximum duration of 43 years of contribution for all workers.
A compromise was found in the joint committee on this crucial subject of long careers. But, by the very admission of the boss of the deputies LR Olivier Marleix, there will always be certain workers who will have to contribute “a little bit” more than 43 years old, and certain elected representatives of the right “will not wish to vote” the reform.
Several of them did not hide their moods.
The deputy of the Territoire de Belfort Ian Boucard, who estimates “between 15 and 20” the number of opponents to the text among his LR colleagues, confirmed on Wednesday evening his desire to “vote against” in particular because of the “postponement of the age of retirement”.
Also “against”, his colleague from the Loire Dino Cinieri specified that he had “not found an answer” on “the 43 years old”, “but also the arduousness, the equality of women and men”.
“Until the last moment, there will be uncertainty,” a government source told AFP.
But having recourse to 49.3 would be perceived as a very risky political gesture and a forced passage, likely to harden the protest movement, warned several union leaders. Its use also exposes the executive to a motion of censure.
On the social front, for the eighth day of mobilization, the CGT counted 1.7 million demonstrators in France and the Ministry of the Interior 480,000, more than last Saturday but much less than March 7. In Paris, the union counted 450,000 demonstrators and the police 37,000.
At the end of these demonstrations, the inter-union called “solemnly” the parliamentarians to vote against the reform.
This law “is disconnected from the concrete reality of work”, supported the general secretary of the CFDT Laurent Berger, present in the Parisian rally. The government “is trying to trick everyone”, especially the right, denounced the leader of rebellious France Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
Despite a breathlessness of the demonstrations, renewable strikes continued, even if we are far from a “France at a standstill”.
At the SNCF, some 15% of strikers were identified at midday according to a union source, down sharply from March 7. In the state civil service, there were less than 3% strikers, against nearly 25% eight days ago.
Some 7,600 tons of garbage cluttered the sidewalks of Paris on Wednesday morning where the garbage collectors voted to continue their movement, which has become a symbol of the unpopularity of the reform, until at least March 20.
The prefect of police of Paris, Laurent Nuñez, on the orders of the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin, however informed Anne Hidalgo on Wednesday evening of his decision to requisition garbage collectors to empty the trash cans which are piling up, which she had refused to do beforehand.
03/16/2023 00:46:23 – Paris (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
