“We are not credible.” This Saturday, while the Senate was submerged in the examination of one of the most sensitive measures of the pension reform bill, including the end of several special regimes, the senator and former Overseas Minister Victorin Lurel s is taken from the senators themselves , affiliated to an independent social security fund.
“We are going to propose the abolition of five special regimes. The French are looking at us, do you think we are going to maintain our credibility?” he asked, before assuring: “I am not a provocateur.”
The senator from Guadeloupe, belonging to the socialist group and member of the finance committee, explained that the senators’ regime is an “autonomous” and not a “special” regime, but that in the minds of the French “it is the same.” .
“How are you going to maintain credibility to say: ‘you are privileged, taken advantage of, you have no criteria for hardship… Our work is difficult for us, because we work at night, and we need an independent and special diet'”. He launched into his companions, adding: “How do you want the French to believe us?”
“A demagogic proposal”
The left defended in vain a motion to return to commission, then amendments to delete article 1 of the bill, dedicated to the gradual extinction of the five special regimes (electricity and gas industries, RATP, Banque de France, employees and employees of notaries, members of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council).
The left has occupied a large part of the field since the beginning of the debates on Thursday, while the right, which dominates the upper house and supports the reform, is more discreet – “laziness” in the ranks, say environmentalists.
“You want to obstruct, we don’t,” launched the leader of the senators LR Bruno Retailleau on Saturday.
Bruno Retailleau also wants these special regimes for current employees to be removed, but his proposal will be discussed later. The government is against it, and its amendment could be rejected, due to lack of support from the centrists.
For the left, the end of the special regimes is “an ideological and demagogic proposal” that will not generate economic gains.
“It’s ‘Peanuts'”
“They are ‘peanuts'”, launched the communist senator Pierre Laurent, in the same vein as Victor Lurel. This suppression “knocks down” everyone.
The general rapporteur Elisabeth Doineau (Union Center) replied: the trades in question “are they as painful yesterday as today?” According to her, “we must open our eyes, we are asking for the effort of all French people, whoever they are”.
“The senatorial majority is consistent in its positions”, in favor of a “convergence” with the general regime, also argued René-Paul Savary, rapporteur for the old age branch of LR, when asked about the last three special regimes that have not been are affected by the government project (sailors, the Paris Opera and the Comédie Française).
In these three areas, the “physical conditions” require maintenance, Labor Minister Olivier Dussopt responded. But for the rest, “working conditions” no longer justify a difference in treatment.
Firmly but calmly – unlike the debates in the National Assembly – the left in the Senate has engaged in a long battle for this article 1. Some 300 amendments remained on the menu for Saturday or even Sunday. According to an old trucker, “he’s going to throw up all weekend.” The pressure grows, in any case, in the streets and in the shops before the mobilization of March 7. The mobilization on Tuesday promises to be massive. According to police sources, the intelligence services expect between 1.1 and 1.4 million protesters throughout France.
Source: BFM TV
