‘A referendum on pension reform’: Horizons incumbent defeated by Nupes candidate

“There has been a ‘retirement’ effect in recent days…” Thomas Mesnier is lucid: the by-election in which he was a candidate for re-election “came at a very bad time for a majority deputy”. Elected from 2017 to 2023, he was narrowly defeated (474 ​​votes) by René Pilato, a rebel candidate for the New Ecological and Social Popular Union.

“This election was a referendum on pension reform,” analyzes the new deputy for the 1st district of Charente on the BFMTV microphone. “And apparently here it is against!”

“One more rebel deputy in the Assembly to fight against the infamous pension reform… and one less macronista to violate the rights of workers”, greeted the president of the LFI group in the National Assembly, Mathilde Panot.

“The context was difficult”

“There has been a withdrawal effect in recent days. People came to vote in the second round when they had not come in the first,” Thomas Mesnier, who had Élisabeth Borne and Édouard Philippe at the BFMTV microphone, also acknowledged. desk. phone shortly after the announcement of his defeat.

“I think the context was difficult. I had talked about a headwind campaign. In the last few days it was more of a headwind than storm!” he said.

Because the reform that the Executive brings and supports the former deputy from Horizontes is more unpopular than ever. According to our latest Elabe poll for BFMTV, 72% of the French reject the government’s project.

But “it is not one more rebel deputy who will change the fate of this reform”, promises Thomas Mesnier.

Because if La France insoumise and Nupes win a seat against the presidential majority, the latter also wins one against the National Rally. Therefore, the number of supporters and opponents of the pension reform remains numerically stable.

Especially since the government intends to approve this pension reform at all costs. The postponement of the retirement age from 62 to 64, contested by the unions and most of the opposition, “is no longer negotiable,” Elisabeth Borne said this Sunday, on the eve of the start of the examination of the project in commission in the Assembly.