It's a crushing defeat for the left-wing coalition Nupes (PS, LFI, EELV, PCF). On the one hand, because the pension reform that she fought for long weeks in Parliament and through demonstrations was validated in its majority by the Constitutional Council on Friday. On the other hand, because his first request for a referendum of shared initiative (RIP) was rejected by this same institution.
The promulgation of the law a few hours later, on the night of Friday to Saturday, had the effect of a third setback.
"This is just the beginning..." the New Anti-Capitalist Party wrote in a statement responding to the council's decision. The vaguely threatening mistrust of the small party could sum up the attitude of the left towards the government. And it's a safe bet that the formalization of the reform will be far from calming the ardor of the opposition.
To "continue the fight", the left intends to swell the ranks of the demonstrations, particularly on May 1 with the inter-union, traditional meeting on the left, which should be more massive than usual.
Fabien Roussel, the leader of the Communists, also focused on this date: "I appeal to the people: May 1, everyone in the street! For Jean-Luc Mélenchon too, this meeting "will be decisive". He spun the metaphor of two camps clashing behind the barricades, believing that the left and the unions together will find salvation in the street: "Behind their barricades, the Elders of the Constitutional Council have just thrown a heavy stone on the people. »
"We will absolutely continue all forms of mobilization," also warned Green MP Sandrine Rousseau, as spontaneous demonstrations were organized across the territory on Friday evening after the decision of the Constitutional Council.
The PS suggested launching a "petition" with the intersyndicale. And the Socialist parliamentarians remain faithful to their confidence in the institutions by wishing to table a legislative text requesting the repeal of the reform.
For its part, LFI pointed to the "composition of the Constitutional Council", "more attentive to the needs of the presidential monarchy than to those of the sovereign people".
Mathilde Panot, the president of the group of rebellious deputies, anticipates, in the longer term, that "this pension reform will permanently poison Emmanuel Macron's five-year term".
