Busy schedule for Elisabeth Borne. This week, the Prime Minister is dedicated to consultations ahead of the eleventh day of mobilization against the pension reform, on Thursday, April 6. Before this crucial day, the head of government must therefore redouble her efforts to try to find common ground with the unions and political representatives of the opposing sides.
· Monday, meeting with the LIOTs
Elisabeth Borne welcomes the group Libertés, Indépendants, Outre-mer et Territoires (LIOT). It was this group that presented a motion of no confidence against the pension reform that almost brought down the government. However, LIOT failed by nine votes.
· Tuesday, consultation on the maintenance of order with ecologists
Elisabeth Borne invited environmentalists to discuss post-pension reform. The latter, however, declined the proposal, judging that it is necessary to “appease” the country by withdrawing or at least suspending the project.
The leader of the EELV party, Marine Tondelier, as well as the heads of the environmental groups in the Assembly and the Senate, Cyrielle Chatelain and Guillaume Gontard, refuse to “participate in the communication exercise” of the prime minister, accused by Emmanuel Macron of building a government program and a legislative program.
Wanting to “turn the page” seems “on the ground and disconnected from the state of nerves” of the French, believes Marine Tondelier, according to which “the country is not prepared for it and neither are we”.
EELV, for its part, obtained an appointment at 12:15 p.m. in another setting with the Prime Minister “to talk about maintaining order, the climate of violence against ecologists and the necessary appeasement.”
LFI and the PCF also refused a meeting and will instead organize a march between the Assembly and the Elysee.
· Wednesday 10:00 am, decisive meeting with the inter-union
By announcing that she will go to Matignon with the other unions, Sophie Binet, the new number one of the CGT, maintains, for the moment, the unity of the inter-union front in the pension conflict. The other union leaders calmed down when they heard him announce that “the united inter-union union” would go to Matignon this Wednesday “to demand the withdrawal” of the pension reform.
“Very good sign”, cheered the number 2 of the CFDT, Marylise Léon. “In the very short term, the line is not in question,” she notes.
But Sophie Binet’s first words also cast doubt: “No truce, no suspension, no mediation.” As a pledge to his most radical followers, who this week disavowed the outgoing Philippe Martínez and his designated runner-up Marie Buisson.
“There is what is said in front of your congress and what can be discussed within the inter-union”, wants to believe Marylise Léon, who hopes to quickly raise “the questions about the line that the CGT wants to defend”.
Scenario feared by a Renaissance parliamentarian: on the eve of an eleventh day of mobilization this Thursday, “we must avoid at all costs that they all come out like hornets saying that there has been no dialogue.”
Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne promised that “everyone will be able to discuss the issues they want.” But as for pensions, “we cannot rest when we have a bill voted.”
Wednesday afternoon, exchanges with the Republicans and then with the employers’ organizations
The reception of the LR deputies promises to be crucial for Élisabeth Borne, because the political group is the only one capable of allowing an absolute majority in the National Assembly on certain texts.
Finally, the main employers’ organizations will in turn be received at Matignon. Asked about the presence of Medef in Matignon, the president of the organization Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux replied “yes, a priori with the other employer organizations. I don’t know if we will go before or after, but we will go on Wednesday.” “.
“It is quite normal, because whatever the issues that are discussed, whether we talk about pensions or whether we talk about work, employers have an opinion on the matter,” he justified.
The Confederation of SMEs (CPME) for its part congratulates itself in a press release “for having been invited to a meeting of the three national interprofessional organizations that represent companies” among which is also the Union of Local Companies (U2P ), which represents artisans and the liberal professions. The CPME considers it “important not to limit the discussion with the social partners, only to the workers’ union organizations.”
Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux reiterated his support for the reform, whose emblematic measure is to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 years. “It is difficult, it is unpopular, it is painful, all the other countries have done it. It’s over and for us it’s time to move forward, to try to find other negotiation topics, perhaps to change the method”, estimated the president of medef.
Source: BFM TV
