The government will not legislate by ordinances, assures Olivier Dussopt

While the mobilization against the pension reform tends to harden in the street, the executive must now work on the strategy to adopt to continue to carry out reforms despite social discontent. While the option of governing by decrees, or even by ordinances, has been regularly mentioned for several days, the Minister of Labor Olivier Dussopt has made things clear on Europe 1.

At the microphone of Pierre de Vilno, he immediately excluded the use of ordinances, preferring to retain the possibility of resorting to decrees. “To make decisions by decree, a law must authorize the decree. So that means adjustments but not very profound changes”, he justified. This solution would also make it possible to avoid the parliamentary stage “If the law as it exists gives you leeway, you can make very concrete changes without necessarily going through a parliamentary debate”. Clearly, if this method does not require going through a law to adopt certain provisions, it does not offer the leisure to reform in depth.

“Things are not that simple”

Conversely, appealing to orders would call for a much more complex process, according to Olivier Dussopt. “To make an order, parliament must authorize the government to take it. So things are not as simple as that,” he pleaded. When this legislative principle is retained, the government replaces the National Assembly and the Senate to adopt certain measures. This was the case in 2017 when the enabling bill for a new railway pact was presented.

With regard to the Asylum and Immigration law, whose examination in the Senate has been postponed sine die, it will therefore be impossible to act by decree. The Constitution, on the other hand, authorizes the government to proceed by ordinances, but since it only benefits from a relative majority, it is not certain of obtaining the necessary approval from parliament.