The debates on the pension reform in the National Assembly resumed on Monday afternoon with an unknown for the government: the strategy of La France insoumise. Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s movement, which tabled 13,000 amendments to tweak the bill, tweaked its approach slightly on Monday night by withdrawing “a thousand” of them.
“We’re in the middle of a game of poker. I’m not going to tell you what we’re going to do to counter Renaissance,” Caroline Fiat MP told BFMTV.com with a smile.
“We present as many amendments as necessary” the reform
It is because of Mathilde Panot’s group of judges that his parliamentary tactic has played its role so far. She lobbied the government, fighting with its promise of a minimum pension for all at 1,200 euros, much more limited than initially anticipated.
But it also has a setback: that of having to face accusations of “parliamentary obstruction” by the presidential majority, under pressure from the street and the unions and after 4 days of debate that only allowed article 1 to be approved. This Monday , no less than 4 ministers took the stage, from Olivier Dussopt to Gabriel Attal through Clément Beaune.
It was Bruno Le Maire who went further, denouncing on RTL this Monday the attitude of La France insoumise, which according to him constitutes “an obstacle to a healthy democratic debate”, “withdraw” “as soon as possible their thousands of ‘amendments’.
“We present as many amendments as the magnitude of this bill requires,” assumes Éric Coquerel, president of the finance commission.
“Masters of Time”
However, several dozen amendments were already withdrawn from the LFI last Friday, which allowed the approval by a narrow margin of article 1 of the reform that puts an end to certain special regimes.
The previous pension reform had, for its part, been the subject of twice as many amendments submitted, with 40,000 in February 2020. Same story on the side of the rebel deputy Hadrien Clouet who recalls that the creation of pensions in 1910 took 6 months.
“Our amendments allow us to be the masters of time. We are the ones who have the time in hand”, assures this employment specialist. Before adding: “we do not fetishize amendments.”
Add or remove amendments “as we want”
It should be understood: the group of rebel deputies will not hesitate to withdraw amendments to speed up the debates whenever they want. Now with an objective: to be able to widely discuss article 3, which refers to the financing of pension plans.
La France Insoumise wants to take advantage of this issue to bring out several of its proposals such as the restoration of the ISF, suppressed in the 2018 budget or a one percent tax on the wealth of the richest. “Our idea is to use the parliamentary technique to push our subjects,” deciphers an executive from the group.
“We want to talk about the abolition of special regimes, we are organizing ourselves to do it. We want to talk about the taxation of the ultra-rich, we are also organizing. The amendments that we can defend when we want or get out of our way are useful for that”, deciphers this close friend of Mathilde Panot, the president of the deputies of the LFI.
A bill that will leave the Assembly on Friday night
On the side of Rachel Kéké, leader of the LFI text who has never ceased, from the commission work at the beginning of the examination of the text, to highlight the issue of difficulty, the technique of total amendments is responsible.
“By dint of talking to them all the time about it, perhaps they will move,” judges this former waitress, who returned to the Assembly last June.
Therefore, if La France Insoumise phases out other amendments as the bill is examined this week, it remains unlikely that Article 7, which contains the lowering of the starting age to 64, will be examined before the Friday, last day of study of the reform. at the Palais-Bourbon. After this term, set by the government, the Senate, in turn, will take charge of the reform.
Source: BFM TV
