At the initiative of the communists, a hundred deputies from the Nupes have presented a request for a referendum on the pension reform project, a request that will be debated by the Assembly on February 6, the left-wing alliance reported on Tuesday.
This “referendum motion” aims to suspend the examination of the government project to begin that day in the chamber, in order to submit the text to a referendum and thus “give the people a word on this crucial election for their future,” according to to a press release.
“Give the word to the people”
Strongly opposed to the postponement of the legal retirement age to 64, like the entire left-wing alliance, the president of the PCF, Fabien Roussel, assured CNews on Tuesday that “the government has opted for blockade and confrontation.”
“We have to get out of this crisis from above. That is why we intend to return the word to the people and do it through a referendum,” he stressed.
According to him, “98 deputies from the left” presented the referendum motion. “Starting on February 6, the opening day of the debates in the National Assembly, we are going to ask all the deputies to give the people a word and get out of this impasse,” he added.
“Opposition of an overwhelming majority of French men and women”
The four Nupes leaders in the Assembly signed the motion, André Chassaigne (PCF), Mathilde Panot (LFI), Boris Vallaud (PS) and Cyrielle Chatelain (EELV). It must still be considered admissible for debate.
The Government’s project “arouses the opposition of an overwhelming majority of French men and women and an unprecedented social mobilization”, they justify in the explanatory statement, where they consider that “a referendum is a true democratic duty”.
If they manage to get the motion approved by the Assembly on February 6, which is far from won, the motion would be immediately referred to the Senate, which must decide within 30 days.
The RN also wishes to present a “referendum motion”
But even adopted by both chambers, it is nothing more than a referendum proposal made to the President, free or not of follow-up. The patron of deputies RN Marine Le Pen indicated on BFMTV on Monday that she will also present such a “referendum motion” in the Assembly on pension reform.
Shortly before, the president of the far-right party Jordan Bardella had advocated such a referendum, to “get out of the top” of the debate, and assured that his party would present an alternative project.
Source: BFM TV
