Alexis Delafontaine, with AFP
modified to
6:13 p.m., March 11, 2023
The boss of senators LR Bruno Retailleau gave up on Saturday to present his emblematic amendment, which requested that the abolition of special schemes also concern current employees, giving a new boost to the examination of pension reform in the Senate. This withdrawal at the start of the afternoon had the effect of reducing the number of amendments still to be considered from some 630 to around 360.
It has indeed rendered null and void the multitude of sub-amendments tabled by the left in response, the presentation of which would have lasted several hours.
An amendment not adopted by the government
Bruno Retailleau’s amendment had not been retained by the government in the list of those included in the text to be submitted to a “single vote” at the end of the debates. These must normally be completed by Sunday midnight so that this election can take place, as the majority right in the Senate wishes, as well as the government, anxious to give democratic legitimacy to its reform rejected by a majority of French.
Bruno Retailleau wanted the gradual abolition of special schemes, provided for in the government text for new hires, to also concern current employees. He proposed “convergence (between the regimes, editor’s note) until 2040” believing that there “was nothing brutal while for all French people, from September 1, the reform will gradually begin to apply “. But the government is against it and has maintained its attachment to the “grandfather clause”, reserving the measure for future hiring.
Article 44.3 of the Constitution drawn on Friday
The government deployed major means on Friday to accelerate and ensure the holding of a vote, by drawing article 44.3 of the Constitution. The latter allows a single vote on the whole of the bill, without putting to the vote the amendments to which the government is unfavorable.
A “coup of force” and a “scuttling of the Senate”, denounced the senatorial left, which however did not lower the weapons and which continues to present its proposals and requests for various and varied reports, with the hope of prevent a final vote. In the absence of being able to debate and vote on each amendment, the senators on the left use each time the full two minutes allocated to present them.