The day after another day of mobilization in sharp decline, the President of the Assembly whistled the end of the parliamentary match against the pension reform, by blocking the examination of a measure of repeal of the 64 years, scheduled for Thursday in the hemicycle.
Yaël Braun-Pivet brandished the ax of article 40 of the Constitution, which prohibits any bill or amendment creating a burden on public finances. And triggered the fury of the opposition in the face of an “unprecedented attack on the rights of Parliament”.
“I apply the rule, nothing but the rule”, justified the holder of the perch on Wednesday, who declared “inadmissible” amendments restoring the retirement age to 62 years, which were to be examined Thursday in plenary session.
The bill, supported by most of the opposition, can still be examined, but emptied, therefore, of its flagship measure.
Article 49.3, Article 40: since the beginning of the debates on pensions in the Assembly in February, there will therefore never have been a specific vote in the hemicycle on the measure to postpone the legal age of retirement from 62 at age 64.
The text carried by the deputies of the group Freedoms, Independents, Overseas and Territories (Liot) maintained the flame of the opponents of the reform promulgated in mid-April, even if the participation, Tuesday, in the 14th day of mobilization was the lowest recorded in five months of protests.
The oppositions protested all the more strongly against the decision of Yaël Braun-Pivet, Liot denouncing a decision “under pressure from the executive”, denied by the person concerned.
On the left, La France insoumise also cried foul. “They are afraid of losing so they want to prevent deputies from voting,” denounced the movement’s coordinator, Manuel Bompard.
The boss of the socialists Olivier Faure wants him to leave the discussions, in progress at the Palais-Bourbon, on the reform of the institutions. “I’m not going to continue to play the puppet with people who take me for an idiot”.
“The President of the National Assembly is trampling on the Constitution which guarantees Parliament the right to pass laws,” Marine Le Pen also got carried away.
Ms. Braun-Pivet’s decision is not a surprise. She had repeatedly described as “unconstitutional” the repeal of 64 years, Elisabeth Borne taxing this proposal of “demagogic”.
The Liot measure had been rejected last week in committee, after a close vote (38 votes against 34), but the oppositions expected to be able to replay this match Thursday in the hemicycle, by filing “reinstatement amendments”.
It is to the latter that the President of the Assembly has obstructed. The repeal of the 64 years would have a cost of “more than 15 billion euros at the very least”, hammered in recent days the presidential camp. Where many voices behind the scenes criticized Yaël Braun-Pivet, from the Macronist Renaissance group, for not having invoked “financial inadmissibility” earlier.
Even adopted by the National Assembly, the bill would have had only a slim chance of succeeding in the legislative plan, the macronists have continued to argue. While worrying about the political signal of a possible lost vote.
The Liot group and the left had drawn up fallback plans, with amendments proposing, for example, to establish “a goal of repeal” of the 64 years by 2024. With the hope that they would pass the filter of section 40.
But they were also almost all challenged, according to the list of inadmissibility published Wednesday evening by the Assembly. Except for an amendment from the Socialists asking for an evaluation report on the decline in the legal age. “MPs who vote for this amendment will express their rejection of the reform,” said the PS group.
The tabling of a new motion of censure against the government was also announced by the leader of the LFI deputies Mathilde Panot. “It is unacceptable that we can make such a coup without there being a reaction behind,” she justified.
But she did not give a date for this initiative, which has yet to be discussed between the Nupes partners. Some are reluctant, like the Liot group, whose motion narrowly failed in March.
According to an Elabe poll for BFMTV published on Wednesday, a large majority of French people (71%) wanted the proposal to abolish retirement at 64 to be debated and voted on Thursday in the Assembly, and 64% of them that she was adopted.
07/06/2023 21:58:08 – Paris (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
