The debates on the controversial pension reform began this Thursday in the Senate, in a much more serene atmosphere than in the National Assembly, the Government reaching out to the Republicans while the left denounced the reform “of the united rights”.
“I know that the ZAD does not exist here, but the Republic,” the minister in charge of Public Accounts Gabriel Attal launched, alluding to the tumult that had reigned in the Assembly, causing a stir in the chamber.
4,700 amendments against 20,000 in the National Assembly
“Here you have nothing to fear, Minister Dussopt”, the president of the centrist group Hervé Marseille later slipped to the direction of the Minister of Labor, who had been reprimanded by the LFI deputies.
This first session, chaired by the president of the Senate, Gérard Larcher (LR), began with a brief intervention by the communist Éliane Assassi, who expressed the “duty” of the left to demonstrate its “strongest opposition in this chamber”.
More than 4,700 amendments, a procedural battle, verbal contests… The 110 hours of debate scheduled, that is to say a third more than at the Palais Bourbon in February according to the right, will allow the final vote to be reached before the midnight gong on the 12th. of March?
In any case, this is the wish expressed by Gérard Larcher for whom “the Senate owes the citizens and the social partners a debate on the entire text.” “We want a debate that goes all the way to the vote,” insisted the president of the LR group Bruno Retailleau.
“Call for compromise among the senatorial majority”
“To remove all the suspense, I would like to say that of course we are going to vote on a text, which will be our text, that is, we are going to vote on the reform, but a modified reform,” he said.
Previously, Gabriel Attal had launched “a call for compromise between the senatorial majority that embodies the desire for reform and the presidential majority that has the responsibility for reform.”
“It is no longer the Macron-Borne reform, but the Macron-Borne-Retailleau reform, that of the right united against the left, united,” socialist David Assouline told the press.
Deprived of the vote of the deputies, the executive counts on the Senate to confer democratic legitimacy on a reform that two thirds of the French (66%) do not want, according to an Odoxa poll.
The exchanges will be organized around the strategic Tuesday, March 7. The CGT called this Thursday to “go up a step” in the mobilization against lowering the retirement age to 64 and to “paralyze France.” In the air, the administration asked companies to cancel 20-30% of their flights on March 7-8 following a strike notice.
Motions to Dismiss Rejected
The deputies, embroiled in heated debates, were only able to examine in depth two of the twenty articles of the text in two weeks. It is, therefore, on the text of the government, barely modified, that the senators take the floor.
As expected, they largely rejected two motions to reject the text put forward by the majority communist and environmental groups of the CRCE. The PS has also submitted a referendum request on behalf of the left, which will be debated on Friday morning and should meet the same fate.
Leftist groups intend to “stand up” to oppose a “retouched”, “not fair”, “not useful” reform. Contrary to what happened in the Assembly, the senators of the PS, Communists and Ecologists want a vote on article 7, which delays the legal retirement age from 62 to 64 years.
“The French must know who votes and who votes what when it comes to their future,” defends the head of the socialist group Patrick Kanner.
“A Maternity Bonus”
The left, however, wants the vote on this key article not to take place until the end of the mobilization day on March 7, then accelerating the debates until the rest of the text is exhausted.
The right tries to defend its “markers”: return to economic balance and family politics. Thus, he proposes granting a pension “surcharge” to mothers who have completed a career.
A measure worth 300 million euros, observed “with interest” by the Government, said Olivier Dussopt. “A maternity bonus,” snapped Ms. Assassi. On the other hand, despite LR’s requests, the Ministry of Labor does not intend to accelerate the extinction of the special pension regimes, and wants to preserve the “grandfather clause” (which maintains the special one for employees who already benefit from them ).
The senatorial majority also proposes a new CDI formula, exempt from family contributions, to facilitate the hiring of unemployed seniors.
Source: BFM TV
