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On the eve of the mobilization in the street, the deputies give, Monday, January 30, the kick-off of the debates in committee on the highly contested pension reform project, with opposition increasingly raised by the unfailing firmness posted by the government. The sixty or so parliamentarians from the Social Affairs Committee are working, article by article, on the text which provides for a lowering of the legal retirement age from 62 to 64 and an acceleration of the extension of the contribution period. , before the test in the Hemicycle from February 6 on the flagship reform of the second Macron five-year term.
On Sunday, the tone went up a notch after the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, assured that the postponement of the retirement age was not “more negotiable”. The patron saint of the National Rally (RN) deputies, Marine Le Pen, warned: the Prime Minister “should not go too far, because, gone as it is, it is not at all impossible that his pension reform will not be voted on”. The coordinator of La France insoumise (LFI), Manuel Bompard, reproached Mme Terminal of ” swagger “while the executive vice-president of the Les Républicains (LR) party Aurélien Pradié criticized his “chin blow”.
Monday morning, it was the secretary general of the French Democratic Confederation of Labor (CFDT), Laurent Berger, who warned France 2 Mme Terminal, which “cannot remain deaf to this tremendous mobilization that has been created”. “I invite parliamentarians not to go headlong in postponing the legal age to 64, because it is rejected by a vast majority of employees”he said during the program “The Four Truths”. “Listen to this discontent that is expressed everywhere”he asked the head of government.
Time will be counted at the Palais-Bourbon. The deputies have until Wednesday 8 p.m. to vote on the approximately 7,000 amendments tabled, the vast majority of which by the left alliance. This is far from the 22,000 amendments in committee on the previous reform attempt of 2020. The tight deadlines are imposed by the vector chosen by the executive, a draft amending budget for Social Security, which limits debates to fifty days. in Parliament.
The crucial voices of the right
The exchanges could be particularly tense on Tuesday, day of national interprofessional mobilization. After that of January 19, which saw 1 million to 2 million people demonstrate against the reform, the unions hope to do at least as well. The strike promises to be very popular in transport and at school. An intelligence source contacted by Agence France-Presse expects 1.2 million protesters nationally at the high end, including 100,000 in Paris, “with 240 processions or gatherings planned”.
“This is the first time that we have started the battle over pensions with so many people”, rejoiced on BFM-TV the boss of “rebellious” deputies, Mathilde Panot. The left curries a project “lonely, unjust and unjustified”even “anti-women”. Its elected officials oppose the 64-year-olds as a whole and refuse to obstruct, avoiding purely formal amendments. “We will adapt our tactics as we go along, we want Article 7 to be discussed” on age, according to Clémentine Autain (LFI). On Saturday, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin accused the New People’s Ecological and Social Union (Nupes) of wanting “bordering the country”.
For its part, the right, whose votes are crucial for the text to be adopted, is raising the stakes. The LRs have requests for women with chopped careers, for those who started working at the age of 20, on family rights, or even a postponement of the entry into force of the reform. The RN deputies are fighting the postponement of the age, but reserve their forces for the Hemicycle. The presidential majority is not to be outdone, but has been asked to curb its ardor to maintain the financial balance of the reform. The idea of stronger constraints around the employment of seniors in large companies is however gaining ground at Renaissance.
Source: Le Monde
