Cinderella has competition. There are still four days left in the Senate to study the entire pension reform… and vote on it Sunday night, midnight. Due to the government’s use of Section 47.1 of the Constitution, senators have limited time to consider the entirety of this highly controversial bill.
Due to the obstruction of the left in the Luxembourg Palace, the text could not be voted on Sunday night, midnight, the scheduled deadline. An alert broadcast on our antenna by Senator LR Roger Karoutchi.
“I don’t know if we will be able to vote on Sunday night or if the obstruction from the left will prevent it,” he explained Wednesday.
In fact, there are still more than a thousand amendments to be considered in just 40 hours, the Senate is in session every day and every night until Sunday night.
prolong the discussions
“We are ready to go beyond Sunday,” the communist Pascal Savoldelli warned on the night of Wednesday to Thursday at the microphone of BFMTV, after the approval of article 7 of the bill.
A statement that is curiously reminiscent of the grievances of the rebel deputies during the examination of the text in the National Assembly, who asked Yaël Braun-Pivet and Olivier Dussopt dozens of times to broaden the debates.
If article 47.1 limits the duration of the debates in the Cortes Generales to 50 days, it also indicates that the Senate must “decide within fifteen days” following the seizure. But according to the interpretations, this article does not necessarily have to be seen as an imperative. The Conference of Senate Presidents therefore theoretically has the possibility of broadening the debates, according to the Government.
Especially since, unlike the National Assembly, the senators move quickly and could find themselves at the end of the text on Sunday night, when the deputies were still stuck on article 2 of the reform twenty days after the start of the exam.
A CMP later than expected?
If the senators decide to extend their debates by a few hours overnight from Sunday to Monday, or open new sessions in the following days, the organization of the Joint Joint Committee (CMP) could potentially be postponed.
This meeting between seven senators and seven deputies, who must agree on a common text, is currently scheduled for March 15. The inter-union has also called for a new day of mobilization to try to influence the election of parliamentarians.
In the hours following this meeting, the Senate and the National Assembly will be called to vote on a common text in public session. If both chambers vote in favour, the pension reform will be adopted.
A probable return to the National Assembly
In the event that the senators do not complete the exam before midnight on Sunday and do not extend their work, article LO111-7 of the Social Security Code, on which the executive relies, is very clear: the pension reform will return to the National Assembly.
The Government will have to seize “again to the National Assembly the text submitted to the Senate, modified, where appropriate, by the amendments voted by the Senate and accepted by it.”
The social security financing bill will then be examined “according to the accelerated procedure under the conditions provided for in article 45 of the Constitution”, we can also read.
But even in the expedited procedure, time seems restricted. The Government intends to respect the “50 days” provided for in article 47.1 of the Constitution. Therefore, the National Assembly and the Senate will have to vote… before March 26. In the event of failure, “if the Cortes Generales have not ruled within a period of fifty days, the provisions of the bill may be executed by ordinance”, provides for article 47.1 of the Constitution.
Source: BFM TV
