Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne at the National Assembly on February 28, 2023 (AFP/Archives/BERTRAND GUAY)
The Senate advanced on Thursday in the examination of the pension reform, after having adopted overnight the postponement to 64 years of the retirement age, against a backdrop of persistent strikes, scattered blockages and growing questions about the existence a majority in the National Assembly.
A few hours after the vote on the flagship article of the project, an “important step” according to Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne, the Senate dominated by the right resumed examination of the text.
Thursday afternoon, senators debated the sensitive issue of long careers. Previously, with the backing of the government, they adopted a right-wing and centrist proposal introducing a pension bonus of up to 5% for women choosing to leave at the legal retirement age, but having accumulated the annuities required from one year before.
On the other hand, a long-awaited amendment from the boss of senators LR Bruno Retailleau has been postponed, to the chagrin of the left.
It was that the gradual extinction of special pension plans, voted in Article 2, applies to employees already in office, without retaining the “grandfather clause”.
But more than 200 subamendments had been tabled at the last minute by the Communists, and discussing them would have taken up much of the day. Catherine Deroche, LR president of the Social Affairs Committee, obtained their placement in reserve. An “extremely unfair” process, exclaimed the leader of the PS group Patrick Kanner.
– Questions about 49.3 –
The Senate has until midnight Sunday to examine the text and, in the event of a favorable vote, will try to reach an agreement with the deputies during a joint joint committee (CMP) scheduled for March 15.
The patron saint of National Rally (RN) deputies Marine Le Pen at the National Assembly in Paris, February 18, 2023 (AFP/Archives/Ludovic MARIN)
In the current state of the text, the additional deficit that the pension system would experience by 2030 will amount to 450 million euros, said Thursday the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire, who wishes the arrived “a copy in balance”.
At the end of this CMP, Elisabeth Borne is counting on a vote of the Republicans in the Assembly to approve the reform without having to use 49.3 (adoption of a text without a vote). But the evocation of this hypothesis was becoming more and more insistent on Thursday.
“I think that, in the National Assembly, there is no majority to vote for this pension reform”, estimated Thursday morning the boss of the National Rally group, Marine Le Pen, for whom 49.3 “would be a demonstration of weakness”.
“It can set fire to the powder”, for his part judged Philippe Martinez, the general secretary of the CGT.
“There is a risk in voting but it is the democratic risk. 49.3 would represent a bigger risk in terms of images,” said a majority executive on Friday.
CGT leader Philippe Martinez during a demonstration against pension reform in Albi (Tarn) on February 16, 2023 (AFP/CHARLY TRIBALLEAU)
The vote on the article on the postponement of the age to 64 “does not change anything in the determination and the mobilizations”, for his part warned Thursday Philippe Martinez. He castigated the “indifference” and the “contempt” of power, Emmanuel Macron having opposed an end of inadmissibility to the inter-union which had asked Tuesday to be received “urgently” at the Élysée.
The eight main unions and five youth organizations sent this request in writing to the Head of State, judging in passing that the silence of the executive in the face of the social movement posed a “serious democratic problem”.
The inter-union called for two new days of mobilization: the first on Saturday, the following Wednesday, March 15, day of the joint joint committee.
-Trains still disrupted-
The strike continued for a third day on Thursday in transport, refineries and energy, where the supply of gas to the network is considerably slowed down due to blockages.
The Chatelet-Les Halles station during a previous strike on January 19, 2023 (AFP/Archives/STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN)
About a third of the TGVs circulate in France, as on Wednesday. In Ile-de-France, rail traffic remained very disrupted, with 80% fewer trains than usual on the RER D and line R of the Transilien, in particular. Traffic should remain very disrupted on Friday and this weekend.
In the Paris metro, the situation improved markedly with normal or almost normal traffic on half of the lines, for a return to normal on Friday, except on the RER B.
In the sky, after several days of disruption, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGAC) has again asked airlines to give up 20% of their flights scheduled for the weekend at several major airports, including Orly.
In Seine-Saint-Denis, CGT electricians and gas workers claimed to have cut power to the Stade de France and the Olympic village site. But there was no power cut at the Stade de France, assured Enedis.
CGT electricians and gas workers deprive the Stade de France of power in Saint-Denis, near Paris, on March 9, 2023 to protest against the pension reform (AFP / Geoffroy Van der Hasselt)
In Paris, several hundred young people demonstrated Thursday afternoon at the call of high school and student organizations. Demonstrations also took place, notably in Rouen and Toulouse.
Lockdowns, often partial, were also organized in several high schools and universities.
© 2023 AFP
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