Alexis Delafontaine with AFP // Photo credit: Christophe ARCHAMBAULT / AFP
Yaël Braun-Pivet is under pressure in view of the examination of a text for the repeal of retirement at 64, caught between her camp which pushes her to torpedo him and her desire to remain a president of the Assembly Above the fight. The bill of the independent group Liot, supported by the oppositions and the unions, must pass on May 31 in committee, before arriving on June 8 in the hemicycle. And the presidential camp seems determined to prevent it from being the subject of a vote considered high risk.
A text described as a “scam”
It is “obviously” inadmissible, judged Thursday the holder of the Perchoir on Sud Radio, because it would result in an additional financial cost estimated by the presidential camp at least 15 billion euros. “It very clearly contravenes article 40 of our Constitution which prohibits parliamentarians from aggravating the charges of the State”, she also told the Tribune. Statements to clarify his position? Behind the scenes of the majority, where strategists compete with plans to cut short this text described as a “scam” without “any chance” of succeeding, many of them were annoyed by the reluctance of Yaël Braun-Pivet.
The former lawyer, member of the Macronist group Renaissance but who was not the candidate of the Head of State for the Perchoir, thus refused to question a decision of the Bureau of the Assembly upstream, at the time of the filing of the contentious text. The Office had not blocked, in accordance with a flexibility of use for this first filter of the proposals of law.
New plan
Faithful to her wish to respect the rules and traditions of the institution to the letter, she still believes that she does not have the cards in hand to re-consider the text at this stage. “It is up to the Chairman of the Finance Committee, which is seized of this question of Article 40, to pronounce the inadmissibility,” she said Thursday. “I cannot conceive of him taking any other decision than inadmissibility”. But the latter is none other than the Insoumis Eric Coquerel. Who had last week welcomed the fact that Mrs. Braun-Pivet respected the first decision of the Bureau, and who makes no secret of her intention to let the repeal text continue its way to the hemicycle.
The macronists, however, have a new plan in mind, in which they urge the president to play one of the leading roles. They hope to succeed on Wednesday in removing the article repealing retirement at 64 in committee, where they believe they have a favorable balance of power. A scenario that would force Liot to reintroduce its flagship measure by an amendment prior to the session of June 8 … and this time would give the president the possibility of brandishing article 40.
“Maximum Pressure”
“They are looking by all means to avoid a fateful vote, so they are pulling all the strings,” comments a Liot deputy. “Braun-Pivet is under maximum pressure: if she holds her line of respect for the institution and the oppositions, by letting a vote take place, they will try to exfiltrate her”. “In the hemicycle, it is I who am accountable for the application of article 40”, said Thursday the person concerned, suggesting that she could indeed take the responsibility of trying to block the road to the text before a vote.
“Don’t do this, you have held up the pressure so far to preserve the role of Parliament,” Green MP Sandrine Rousseau challenged her on Twitter. “If she doesn’t, she gets fired,” says a Macronist parliamentarian, even if this possibility of “firing” the President of the Assembly does not exist. “She has been annoying President Macron for a year” and “will continue to play the same score”, expects another, while Yaël Braun-Pivet has already been criticized in the past for her demonstrations of independence and some have presidential ambitions.
For her part, the entourage of the first woman at the Perchoir is annoyed by the “lone rider” trials made in her own camp, while “she has always done the job” and “is loyal”. But she “will never bend the rules” and “those who try to pressure her will be disappointed”.