It is difficult to refute, even within the New People's Ecological and Social Union (Nupes), that the recent debate in the National Assembly on pension reform illustrated the tensions and disagreements that can undermine, on certain subjects, the left-wing alliance founded on the occasion of the legislative elections.
According to Boris Vallaud, the president of the socialist group in the Assembly, interviewed in Le Journal du dimanche (JDD) of February 16, "the Nupes did not show their best face" during this clashing parliamentary sequence which saw the deputies socialists, ecologists and communists on one side, and the elected representatives of insubordinate France (LFI) on the other, oppose on the strategy to follow.
The former wanted to speed up the process to arrive at the discussion on the article of the law relating to the postponement of the retirement age to 64 years. The latter maintained thousands of amendments and the debates bogged down before reaching this famous article 7.
"By our disunity, I fear that we have moved away from our double mission: to serve those who have only their work to live and to be the fulcrum of the social movement", explains Mr. Vallaud to the weekly.
"The Assembly is not a tea room"
“La Nupes is a union of four: we must respect each other, which does not prohibit disagreements. But we must remain within a common regulatory framework, and hold our positions when we decide on them together. We have come out of this common framework and in some respects from the Assembly itself,” he adds.
Boris Vallaud also deplores the excesses of certain LFI deputies, one of them even calling the Minister of Labor, Olivier Dussopt, an "assassin" in the middle of the hemicycle. “The Assembly is not a tea room. There is room for passion and anger, but the limit is slip-ups, threats and insults,” he says.
Like the environmentalists who are calling for an act II of the Nupes, he calls for a reflection on the future functioning of the coalition.
“We can name it whatever we want but yes, for Nupes, there must be an after. It is possible and necessary. This after must be more collective and more respectful of differences,” he says.
"After the battle for pensions, I propose that we find a time to talk all together", suggests Mr. Vallaud, pleading in particular for "an operating charter" of the parliamentary intergroup "to improve consultation and regulation between us".
