A bill more than ever at the heart of this beginning of the year. The government raised its voice on Monday, February 13 against LFI's "systematic obstruction" and demanded the withdrawal of its numerous amendments "which do not serve the democratic debate", before the resumption in the afternoon of the examination by the National Assembly of the pension reform.
Under pressure from the street and the unions, who are raising the threat of a "France at a standstill" on March 7, the debates restart at 4 p.m., after a first week in slow motion shaken by invectives and outbursts of tension. in the hemicycle, until the exclusion for fifteen days of an Insoumis deputy for a controversial tweet on the Minister of Labor Olivier Dussopt, bearer of the reform.
Monday morning, no less than four ministers responsible for government communication on the file, Bruno Le Maire, Olivier Dussopt, Gabriel Attal and Clément Beaune stepped up to the plate in the morning radio and TV shows. The Minister of the Economy was the most virulent, denouncing the attitude of La France Insoumise, which according to him constitutes "an obstacle to the healthy, clear democratic debate that our compatriots are entitled to have on the reform ". He demanded on RTL "that as quickly as possible, LFI withdraw its thousands of amendments".
"We are facing a systematic obstruction of the coalition around La France insoumise", added France Info Olivier Dussopt. Whether or not the deputies have completed the examination of the bill, the discussions will end Friday at midnight on first reading. The text will then go to the Senate.
The debates will be punctuated, Thursday, by a fifth day of action at the call of the inter-union. Drowned under the remaining 15,800 amendments, will MPs reach at least Article 7 on raising the legal retirement age to 64? "If the oppositions want us to be able to talk about age, it's up to them to withdraw their obstructionist amendments so that we can get to article 7," warned Olivier Dussopt.
"If you withdraw all your bogus amendments, we will be able to go to article 7 which is fundamental and which worries the French", launched for his part France Inter the vice-president RN of the Assembly Sébastien Chenu.
This is also what the unions are calling for in chorus. Sunday, the secretary general of the CFDT Laurent Berger denounced on RTL the "bullshit" of the obstruction, targeting La France insoumise at the origin of the majority of the amendments tabled. He also lamented the "lamentable spectacle" in the Assembly, which has "nothing to do with the dignity of the street movement". "We want there to be a vote on article 7," CGT boss Philippe Martinez said on BFMTV on Monday, so that "each deputy can speak" on the extension to 64 years.
On the mobilization side, Saturday's demonstration, more family-oriented, attracted between 963,000 and 2.5 million demonstrators according to sources, and confirms the inter-union in its strategy. After the new day of action on Thursday, it raises the specter, if the government and the Parliament were to remain "deaf" to the claims, of a "France at a standstill" on March 7, after the school holidays.
"Paralyzing and blocking the country would be counterproductive", reacted the president of the Renaissance deputies Aurore Bergé on BFMTV on Sunday. Government spokesman Olivier Véran repeated the executive's line on Sunday: "need" to postpone the legal age to 64 and "listen" to strengthen the "senior index" device during parliamentary debates, in order to push companies to keep the over 55s in employment.
It is precisely on the employment of older employees that the deputies will resume their work on Monday, with a flurry of amendments in all camps. The Nupes coalition then intends to defend its tracks of "alternative financing" for pensions, with a new call to tax the "superprofits" of the largest companies, a recurring debate in the Assembly since the summer.
The presidential camp only has a relative majority in the Assembly, but the first votes rather reassured the macronists about the forces present in the hemicycle. The left relies on the endurance of the street to stand up to the government. Saturday evening on his blog, LFI leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon proposed to the unions, "a new convergence" with "a call for a rally on a Saturday or Sunday in March to surround the action en masse".
Consult our file: Pensions: the big bang
