Pensions: article 7 adopted in the Senate, “an essential step” according to Gérard Larcher

Greeted by some applause on the right, the vote postponing the retirement age from 62 to 64 was won by 201 votes against 115, out of 345 voters overnight from Wednesday to Thursday in the Senate. “An essential step” according to the President of the Senate, Gérard Larcher, guest of Europe Matin Thursday, but which angered the opposition. “You are botching the debate”, “the so-called wisdom of the Senate has taken a hit”, criticized the leader of the Communist senators Eliane Assassi.

“No pension reform since 1993 has been done without having a part extremely against”

According to the President of the Senate, there is nothing surprising since “no pension reform since 1993 has been done without having a part extremely against”. If the left denounces a “coup of force”, Gérard Larcher denies it. “For five days, the opposition left in the Senate were able to express themselves extremely widely. There were 124 speeches or presentation of amendments on the beginning of article 7. We are 348, that’s more than a third of the number of senators, if that’s not a word, then what is a gagged word?”, he asked.

“Parliament must debate and vote, that’s its role. We were on article 7, the heart of the reform reactor, the postponement of the legal retirement age to 64, the gradual increase in the number of annuities at 43 is somewhere to save the pay-as-you-go pension system,” he said before adding. “I think it’s our responsibility to tell future generations: we were able to help preserve the pay-as-you-go system.”

For its part, the inter-union, which wants to continue to put pressure with a new mobilization on Saturday and the multiplication of actions, asked to be received “urgently” by the Head of State “so that he withdraws his reform “.