Elisabeth Borne assured Tuesday that a positive vote by right-wing deputies on her pension reform would not be interpreted as “support for the government”, launching a new appeal to these crucial voices before two decisive days in Parliament.

An eighth day of action is scheduled for Wednesday at the call of the inter-union.

Social mobilization seems to be running out of steam, except in energy and among garbage collectors who, in Paris, voted to continue the strike “at least until March 20”. Some 6,600 tons of waste were not collected in the capital on Tuesday.

Garbage cans were also thrown in front of the headquarters of the presidential Renaissance party in Paris by union activists in order to “remember that people are on strike, that people are responsible for this situation”, explained to AFP Simon Duteil , joint general delegate of Solidaires.

“You will (…) be led to speak on the pension reform. Not on support for the government, but on this project, on this project only”, affirmed the Prime Minister before the National Assembly, hammering at a dozen times, in an anaphora, that “a majority exists” to vote for the text.

“A majority exists, which is not afraid of reforms, even unpopular ones, when they are necessary,” she added. Before asking the opposition, in another anaphora, to “assume” its attitude when it “chooses obstruction”.

The government is counting on the meeting on Wednesday in the Joint Joint Committee (CMP) – seven deputies, seven senators and as many alternates meeting behind closed doors – to build a compromise text.

“If the CMP has a common text, this text will have a majority” in the Senate and then in the Assembly, said Labor Minister Olivier Dussopt.

But, even if a compromise is likely within the joint commission, where the macronists and the right are in the majority, the suspense remains immense on the vote which must follow Thursday in the Assembly.

This uncertainty raises the possibility that the government will trigger Article 49.3 of the Constitution, which allows adoption without a vote but exposes the executive to a motion of censure.

The President of the National Assembly Yaël Braun-Pivet on Tuesday rejected the request of the Socialists and La France insoumise for an audio and video broadcast of the meeting of the joint commission. Its debates will therefore be the subject of a written report, but no doubt with a few days’ delay.

In response, LFI should tweet the deliberations of the conclave live, with several of its elected officials giving “meetings” on social networks.

Parliamentarians were preparing their weapons and their arguments for the CMP.

“It’s not a dinner with friends,” deputy LFI Hadrien Clouet, deputy member of this body, told AFP.

Thomas Ménagé, full member for the National Rally group, admits that “we will be partly spectators of something that has already been decided elsewhere”, between the government and the Republicans, whose voices are essential to pass his reform.

The executive has already conceded to the right a decline in the retirement age to 64, not 65, as well as an increase in small pensions extended to current retirees.

Within the LR group, it is emphasized that the “only subject” will be long careers. Certain concessions on this subject made to the Republicans under the impetus of deputy Aurélien Pradié could disappear from the final text, warned the Minister of Economy Bruno Le Maire, concerned about the financial “balance” of the reform.

The commission, “it may be a bit long”, notes the centrist deputy of the Liot group and veteran of the Assembly, Charles de Courson.

Eyes are already on Thursday in the Assembly, where deputies opposed to the reform are preparing a motion for the overall rejection of the text, if it is put to the vote, and a “transpartisan motion of censure” against the government. .

The boss of the CFDT Laurent Berger has once again warned against the consequences of a forced passage via 49.3, an option which must previously be authorized by the Council of Ministers.

On the eve of the eighth day of mobilization, the movements were still very followed in energy and among Parisian garbage collectors, but seemed to be running out of steam in refineries and certain sections of transport.

Traffic will remain disrupted on Wednesday at the SNCF with in particular 3 out of 5 TGVs and difficulties in Ile-de-France. The RATP foresees slightly disrupted traffic in the Paris metro and very disrupted in the RER.

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03/14/2023 19:34:52 –         Paris (AFP) –         © 2023 AFP