the unions call for an “even more massive” demonstration on January 31

Categorically opposed to the pension reform, the leaders of the eight main trade union organizations of employees called, Wednesday, January 25, “the population to mobilize even more massively on January 31” in the street, after a first day of inter-union demonstration on January 19. The latter had gathered nearly 1.12 million people throughout France, according to the Ministry of the Interior, a record since 2010.

Six days before this new day of national mobilization, the union leaders thus arranged to meet the press on the Place du Palais-Bourbon in Paris, in the immediate vicinity of the National Assembly, to take a family photo and a joint declaration. , before being received by the Social Affairs Committee.

“We are here today to collectively reaffirm our opposition to the reform project, which goes against the interests of workers by raising the legal retirement age to 64 and accelerating the extension of the contribution period »said the secretary general of the CGT, Philippe Martinez, reading the joint declaration of the eight employee organizations (CFDT, CGT, FO, CFE-CGC, CFTC, UNSA, Solidaires, FSU). “The inter-union calls on the entire population to mobilize even more massively on January 31 to say no to this unjust reform”he added.

Nine days of debate scheduled in session at the Assembly

After its presentation to the Council of Ministers on Monday, the bill providing for the postponement of the legal retirement age to 64 by 2030 must now be examined by parliamentarians. It arrives at first reading in the hemicycle of the National Assembly from February 6, where nine days of sitting are scheduled for its examination, including the weekend. A total of seventy-three hours of debate.

“We have put ourselves in the condition for the debate to be held in its entirety”assured Wednesday the President of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, during her wishes to the press, while the government’s choice to go through an amendment to the draft amending Social Security budget (PLFSSR) is strongly contested.

Like any budget text, a PLFSSR makes it possible to limit the duration of debates in Parliament, or even to pass the reform by ordinance after fifty days for lack of adoption. In first reading, twenty days are allocated to the National Assembly to examine the text, both in committee and then in session. If the reform project is not validated within this period, the original text still passes before the Senate.

“I would prefer a vote on this text”euphemised M^me Braun-Pivet on Wednesday, emphasizing his desire to avoid recourse to 49.3 and that Parliament can “go to the end of the text”noting that “the only thing that could prevent it” would be too many amendments tabled by the opposition. So she called “so that there is no obstruction” and pleaded for “parliamentary debate [permette] to change the text.

According to the Renaissance MP for Yvelines, the time that will be given to MPs to debate this bill is greater than during previous pension reforms. It was sixty-five hours in 2010 for the Woerth reform and forty-five hours in 2014 for the Touraine reform, thus highlighted M^me Braun-Pivet.

As for the request for the organization of a referendum on the pension reform, carried by the Nupes and supported in principle by the deputies of the National Rally, the President of the National Assembly estimated that “ a referendum is very binary” and “does not allow us to go into the complexity of the reform”. On Tuesday, a hundred left-wing deputies filed a request for a “referendum motion” to this effect, which is to be debated in the Hemicycle on February 6.

Reservations also expressed within the right

If the presidential camp counts on the support of the deputies Les Républicains (LR) to have the reform adopted in Parliament, the revolt of certain right-wing deputies, who threaten not to vote in the state a text judged “unfair”pushes him to evoke new conditions (on long careers, women or the calendar) to avoid a failure of the text.

“We have fifty days of parliamentary debates. There are many topics to discuss”said Wednesday the boss of LR deputies, Olivier Marleix, on France info, aware of the role that his group can play on this text. The conditions already put on the table by the right “are not disputed by anyone within our group”but it will be necessary, to reach a majority, that LR obtains satisfaction also on the ” terms ” who “could come during the debate”added the general secretary of the party, Annie Genevard, on South Radio.

An agreement with the presidential majority seemed sealed since the heads of LR, received at Matignon by Elisabeth Borne last week, were pleased to have snatched concessions, in particular on the revaluation of small pensions. But a dozen deputies have since expressed their doubts aloud about the reform as it stands, like the deputy for Lot Aurélien Pradié.

Bearer of a line of “popular right”, the former contender for the presidency of LR has constantly repeated his fear of “massive injustice” what this reform could bring about in its current state. Among the blocking points listed by the elected representative of a land on the left, the question of taking into account the arduousness and careers of “women, mothers, [de] those who started working at age 20, or before age 20 without five validated quarters”.

The geography of the demonstrations of January 19, where strong mobilizations were recorded in medium-sized cities, also alerted LR as the party lost part of its anchorage within the higher socio-professional categories and urban centers. Today it concentrates most of its sixty-two seats in outlying or rural constituencies.