A dinner to finally be able to decide. Emmanuel Macron brings together the heavyweights of the presidential field this Wednesday night at rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré with one goal: to reach an absolute majority agreement on the method to extend the retirement age.
Two fields collide. On the one hand, there are supporters of a quick method, starting with Édouard Philippe and Alexis Kohler, the powerful secretary general of the Elysee. On the other, François Bayrou, Macron’s main ally in the National Assembly, who did not hesitate to express his reluctance to the method envisaged by the Executive for fear of a “forced step” in Parliament.
“Find a solution that makes everyone agree”
“We all sit around the table to find a solution that everyone agrees on. At the end of the evening, the idea is that we have decided on the method and can move forward”, deciphers the entourage of Franck Riester, the Delegate Minister of Relations with Parliament, with BFMTV.com.
This meeting was essential when the option that the president initially considered – that of an amendment to the social security budget in the fall – has lost ground.
However, it has the advantage of ensuring that the postponement of the retirement age is voted on in the autumn, allowing Emmanuel Macron to show his DNA as a reforming president.
“To push back, we run the risk of having even more difficulties”
But this approach, which strains the unions, could well lead to a 49.3, far from “the new democratic method” that the president proclaimed. Which tenses the president of the National Assembly Yaël Braun-Pivet and pushes the president to review his copy.
Among the other possibilities that will be on the table this Wednesday night: a bill dedicated to pension reform presented to Parliament next winter. The method “would allow time for dialogue with the unions and to raise the issue of hardship, annuities, shortened careers,” says Fadila Khattabi, Renaissance chair of the Social Affairs Commission.
“We don’t really know what the economic situation of the country is going to be next January. Growth is likely to slow down, aid for gasoline could stop. To go backwards, we risk having even more difficulty, not to mention that the discussions really stop.” always”, argues however a heavyweight of the majority, who hardly believes in it.
Another problem: the very likely recourse to 49.3 to vote on the text, at the risk of burning a “cartridge”. The government has the right to use this legislative weapon only once a year outside of the budget texts.
A third way, which “would please everyone”
Last option, described as “serious” by the entourage of the Head of State with the BFMTV: the use of a bill that modifies the financing of social security, a “PLFRSS” in parliamentary jargon.
Technically, the maneuver would guarantee a relatively quick examination in Parliament at the beginning of 2023. This possibility would also offer François Bayrou a small victory, a benefit far from useless when the government needs its 49 deputies in the National Assembly.
“If it allows everyone to please, let’s go. We will see if this option allows the atmosphere around the table to relax a bit, ”says François Patriat, the head of the Macronist senators.
White smoke should come out of the Elysee “by the end of the week”, as Élisabeth Borne announced on BFMTV on Monday. Coincidence of the calendar: Emmanuel Macron will be in Pau on Friday in the lands of the patron of the Modem. What he can weigh in the balance of the president.
Source: BFM TV
