Using article 49.3 for pension reform would constitute “a form of democratic vice” that is both “incredible and dangerous”, warns Laurent Berger, secretary general of the CFDT, in an interview with the Sunday newspaper the day after his passed in the Senate.

The text was approved after another day of protests, in a blocked vote under Article 44.3 of the Constitution, which allows a single vote on the entire bill, without putting to the vote the amendments to which the government is opposed. If deputies and senators reach an agreement on Wednesday in a joint committee, it could be definitively adopted the next day.

“Prime Minister [Elisabeth Borne] does not want 49.3. She said it. There is therefore no reason for the government to do so… Let’s say things: the debate did not take place in the National Assembly, and it was accelerated in the Senate, while the latter has the habit of going to the end of the texts in a serene atmosphere. In this context, adopting this reform thanks to 49.3 is impossible”, Judge Laurent Berger.

“To adopt via this hasty procedure a reform that is at the same time very impactful for the lives of tens of millions of people, unfair from our point of view and badly cobbled together, it would be a form of democratic vice”, he continues. “That the end of the story is a 49.3 seems unbelievable and dangerous to me.” Conversely, “if the Parliament votes the text, but it is far from being done, it will be necessary to take note”, he recognizes, while estimating that “whatever the case, the world of work wholeheartedly rejects this reform”.

“A very deep resentment”

“It’s not the France of lazy people demonstrating: it’s the France of those who work every day, in all regions and professions!” And the response of the government, which explains that the only option is to pass the reform whatever the cost, is contempt. This is why the determination that is expressed in the street is turning into anger. To break this impasse, why not ask citizens what they think about going from 62 to 64 through a referendum? »

“The determination that is expressed in the street”, after seven days of mobilization and before an eighth Wednesday, “is turning into anger”, warns the leader of the CFDT, for whom “the challenge of the world work is massive, deep and enduring”. “Just because this text would be passed doesn’t mean people are going to say, ‘We’re moving on to the next sequence. That’s what the techs advising the government believe. And they are wrong. »

“If the law is passed without taking into account the expression of the social movement, we will not find ourselves, the next morning, discussing as if nothing had happened, he predicts. I never condone violence. Afterwards, maybe it will be an unfortunate consequence in the face of the contempt we face. There is a very deep resentment in the world of work. »

Elisabeth Borne welcomed on Saturday that the text was adopted in the Senate “with a broad vote (…) despite the attempts at obstruction by certain groups”. “I am sure that there is a majority in Parliament to vote for this text,” she added.