New return to the track of the retirement bill at age 64, after chaotic debates in the National Assembly. If the right, which has a majority in the Senate with centrist senators, wants to say yes to the pension reform, it intends to advance on its own issues, such as employment for the elderly.
In the absence of a vote by the deputies on February 18, who barely examined 10% of the text, the government places great trust in the Upper House so that the bill acquires parliamentary legitimacy. With relative confidence: for several years, the Senate has voted in each social security budget to raise the retirement age to 64 years.
In committee then in the hemicycle
First step: the passage in the Social Affairs Commission of the reform this Tuesday from 2:30 p.m. Headed by Senator LR Catherine Deroche, it will have the task of saying yes to certain amendments of high symbolic value such as the creation of a senior CDI, a bonus-malus for the senior index or the end of the pension bonus for parents who do not pay court-mandated alimony.
On Thursday afternoon, the senators will focus on the reform in the chamber until March 12, according to the schedule set by the government. The left intends to make itself heard “strongly but calmly”, as Patrick Kanner, president of the socialist group in the Senate, told BFMTV.com.
Without La France insoumise elected, ecologists, socialists and communists have set themselves the goal of not debating the emblematic article 7 on raising the retirement age to 64 before March 7, the next great day of social mobilization.
The LR want to “vote” while they “modify” the reform
On the right side, Bruno Retailleau has already announced the color: this weekend, the head of the LR senators indicated “they wish to vote” on the pension reform, “after having modified it” in the columns of the Parisian. In 2017, the elected representative of the Vendée even campaigned in favor of François Fillon advocating for the lowering of the legal age of departure to 65 years.
The senators have set themselves the objective of influencing the rate of old age and improving the pension of women. Franck Riester, the Minister Delegate for Relations with Parliament, had acknowledged that women would be “a bit penalized” by the reform, before Elisabeth Borne denounced “a false trial”.
The Senate LR thus offers “a 5% premium” for mothers with a full career. Proof that the executive intends to smooth things over with the LRs: Bruno Retailleau announced Tuesday on CNews that he will meet the prime minister again with Gérard Larcher this Wednesday.
“Finding a way” with the Senate for Borne
The Prime Minister, moreover, has never stopped making an attack of kindness in recent days against the senatorial right. “We will listen to the proposals of the Senate and we will find the way together”, he launched this Monday in the sections of the agricultural fair.
If Gérard Larcher has tools to speed up debates if necessary – such as article 38 of the Senate regulations that limits the intervention of speakers “of contrary opinion” – the president of the Senate must play with velvet.
Nicolas Sarkozy’s former Labor Minister has not stopped extolling the virtues of social dialogue in recent weeks. This complicates the use of the discussion framework. His mandate as number one of the Palais du Luxembourg will also be put into play next September on the occasion of the upcoming Senate elections. It is not a matter of rushing the left to appreciate it.
Debates influenced by the street
But the government has one last tool to expedite the debates: Article 44 of the Constitution. This provision allows him to force the Senate to “decide by single vote on all or part of the text, keeping only the amendments proposed or accepted by the government.”
The executive’s strategy should be conditioned by the continuity of the social movement, between the strike on March 7, which will be renewable at the SNCF, and the appeal on March 8, the international day of struggle for women’s rights, which wants to “denounce the injustice pension reform for women”.
Source: BFM TV
