Pension reform is “indispensable when we compare ourselves in Europe” and to “save our system” by distribution, declared Emmanuel Macron on the eve of the second day of demonstrations and strikes at the call of the unions opposed to the postponement of starting age at 64. Asked at a press conference in The Hague about the words of his Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne, who declared this weekend that postponing the age was “no longer negotiable”, the head of state said assured: “When she says something, she says it with good reasons and I support her”.
The reform on the table of the Social Affairs Committee
For her part, Elisabeth Borne urged her majority to “carry” the reform, “both by defending our project and by not letting untruths spread”, according to participants in the executive office of the presidential Renaissance party. The flagship project of the five-year term arrived on the table of the Assembly’s Social Affairs Committee on Monday, the first stage of a complex parliamentary journey. Hectic and laborious, the discussions dragged on until the vote on the first article, on the gradual disappearance of several special pension schemes.
“Come to the picket lines” to assess the hardship of these professions, invited Danielle Simonnet (LFI), while the presidential majority defended a principle of “equity between regimes”. “If we cut your juice for 2-3 hours in your hotlines, I don’t want to hear you cry”, launched the communist Sébastien Jumel, during the debate on the regime of the electricity and gas industries, under the protests of the macronists.
The demonstrations will be a “popular motion of censure”, says Panot
Gauche and RN pounded the words of Elisabeth Borne who had estimated on Sunday that the postponement of the legal age of departure to 64 was “no longer negotiable”. “When the Prime Minister says something, she says it with good reasons and I support her,” defended Emmanuel Macron in The Hague. On Monday, the leader of the LFI deputies, Mathilde Panot, replied that “the withdrawal of the text is not negotiable”. Tuesday’s protests will be a “popular censure motion”, she added.
In Marseille, the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, once again criticized LFI for “messing up” the debate to “systematically prevent the government from moving forward”. After the mobilization of January 19, which saw one to two million people demonstrate against the reform, the unions hope to do at least as well, supported by polls attesting to a growing rejection in public opinion.