DECRYPTION – The right-wing amendment allows women who have had at least one child not to be penalized by the reform.
And article 7 was voted. Wednesday evening, by 201 votes for, 115 votes against (including 2 LR) and 29 abstentions (including 15 LR), the senators recorded the postponement of the legal retirement age to 64 years. An important step for the government as for the senatorial majority as the last hours had been eventful between reminders of regulations, battle of amendments and sub-amendments.
It is also a victory for the promoters of the reform while the deputies had not managed to examine this article, yet at the heart of the government text. “I am delighted that the debates made it possible to reach this vote”immediately reacted Elisabeth Borne.
“Examination of the text will continue. It will make it possible to examine proposals from all the benches for a balanced and fair reform.continued the Prime Minister on Twitter. “It’s a step taken, an important step”, greeted Minister Olivier Dussopt.
“LR finally served the soup to President Macron. Of which act. At least the masks have fallen,” reacted the president of the socialist group, Patrick Kanner. “For me, the general interest overrides everything”swept Bruno Retailleau. “You are botching the debate”was indignant the president of the communist senators, Éliane Assassi after the use on several occasions of article 38 which limits the number of interventions, “the so-called wisdom of the Senate has taken a hit”.
“We will never accept that you melenchonise the Senate ! »retorted his Republican counterpart, Bruno Retailleau, worried about such a “obstruction” from the left. “Let’s not damage what remains to us as a parliamentary institution in France, because otherwise, it’s the door open to anti-parliamentarianism. »
On Thursday, to avoid the debate getting bogged down again and to make it possible to deal more quickly with Article 8 (long careers and mothers), Bruno Retailleau postponed the examination of his much criticized amendment aimed at accelerating the end of special diets.
Way for Senator LR to thwart the expected obstruction. 236 sub-amendments had been tabled by the communist group. Immediately, a new salvo of points of order was heard; the opposition getting annoyed at having been taken by surprise.
” You have wanted for hours and hours to show your hostility to this reform. But during that time, we did not start the substantive debate ”replied the LR rapporteur, René-Paul Savary.
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Women at the heart of the matter
After these new tensions, the debate rose in the afternoon. The senators adopting with the approval of the government and unanimously of the voters (280 votes for, 0 against), the amendment of the senatorial majority on the improvement of retirement pensions for mothers who, at the age of 63 , have a full career.
The proposal adopted provides for a premium of 1.25% per quarter up to a maximum of 5% for women who have had at least one child and who will exceed the 43 required annuities. “Our measure will affect 30% of women of a generation (i.e.) still 130,000 people “welcomed René-Paul Savary.
At the end of January, the Minister for Relations with Parliament, Franck Riester, admitted that women would be “a little penalized” by postponing the legal age provided for in the reform. Without this voted amendment, the quarters earned by mothers because of their maternity would have been erased by the postponement of the legal retirement age to 64 years.
A reality denounced by the senatorial majority, Bruno Retailleau having made “a red line”. Thursday, after this vote, the president of senators LR greeted “a rare moment of almost convergence between us”. “The premium system makes it possible to provide compensationalso welcomed Minister Olivier Dussopt, we know that motherhood is a brake on promotion. Increasing the pension is perhaps the fairest compensation to be made at the time of retirement. »
However, some left-wing senators felt that this amendment should have concerned all women, beyond mothers. With the question of wage inequalities raised by the socialist senator, Laurence Rossignol.
“By excluding all women who are not mothers from this amendment, you are not addressing the specific gender pay gap,” she said, having nevertheless voted for the device.
“This is a real subject that the Senate must take up. But this is not at all the object of the text. Today we must focus on the challenge of balancing pensions,” detailed Philippe Mouiller, vice-president of the LR group.
“The unthought of government reform is demography, had indicated, earlier in the hemicycle, Bruno Retailleau. A pay-as-you-go plan is a demographic and intergenerational transition plan. Women are already the big losers (of this reform). Mothers even more since we crush the quarters of increase with the two years of decline. It is something fundamental. » And to conclude:“We cannot think about the future of the regime without a vigorous and voluntary family policy. »