The former Socialist Prime Minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, calls for the implementation of a shared initiative referendum (RIP), to “put a stop” to the pension reform, in an interview Wednesday with La Tribune.
“There is no need to wait for (the presidential election of) 2027 to question (the text). All that is needed is to implement the shared initiative referendum, the RIP”, explains the former – Prime Minister of François Hollande.
This tool “can make it possible, if the conditions are met, to put a stop to the process of reform”, he affirms.
“I really believe it is possible to block the reform by this means, provided that we have time to convince its opponents: 70% of French people say they are opposed to raising the retirement age and millions demonstrated in the street to say so. It is therefore up to the left to propose this path”, notes Mr. Cazeneuve again.
Socialist MP Valérie Rabault had already mentioned this solution.
It requires being proposed by a fifth of the members of Parliament, i.e. at least 185 of the 925 parliamentarians (577 deputies, 348 senators) and then being supported by a tenth of the voters, i.e. 4.87 million people.
The former Prime Minister judges that “if the law were to be adopted with the backing of 49.3, going back to the people would be the only possible way of appeasement”.
Mr. Cazeneuve, who left the PS by refusing the Nupes agreement with LFI, EELV and the PCF, launched a new movement, called “The Convention”, aimed at uniting leftist tendencies hostile to this alliance.
“I am concerned about the left of government, because I think that if it does not recover quickly, the risk of victory for the National Rally will be real”, adds the ex-minister.
He considers that “the positions taken by LFI, within the Nupes, its insults and its irresponsible and violent behavior, arouse the embarrassed silence of the other components of the left and place them in an impasse”.
03/15/2023 15:54:12 – Paris (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
