Paris (AFP)

Happening of LR, common axis on the left and critical by all the oppositions of the preliminary works, which would show a "contempt" of the Parliament: the first steps Tuesday of the pension reform in the National Assembly were laborious.

After the presentation of the bills in the Council of Ministers on Friday January 24, it is the kick-off of the parliamentary phase: the special committee which will examine the reform first was set up Tuesday afternoon at the Palais Bourbon.

This commission chaired by Brigitte Bourguignon, a "walker" from the socialist ranks, will hear the ministers concerned in the evening.

Wednesday it will be the turn of the trade unions and employers' organizations, in the middle of a day of inter-professional mobilization against the reform after almost two months of social conflict.

The texts will pass in the hemicycle of the Palais Bourbon from February 17.

As of Tuesday morning at a conference of the presidents of the Assembly, four political groups - LR, PS, PCF and LFI - challenged the impact study accompanying the bills, deemed "incomplete and insincere", and asked for referral to the Constitutional Council and a postponement of debates ... to no avail.

The boss of the LREM deputies Gilles Le Gendre notably recalled that the studies accompanying the Woerth pension reforms in 2010 and Touraine 2014 were less voluminous (88 and 137 pages respectively, compared to a thousand today).

The oppositions were based on the opinion of the Council of State made public on Friday, which itself pointed to "incomplete" financial projections.

Dozens of LR deputies hit the nail on the head shortly after: girded in their tricolor scarf, they landed in the Four Columns Room to demand "a new and real reform bill", denouncing the government's "haste" and "amateurism".

Unlike the left, The Republicans are "for reform, but not this one", "unjust and unbalanced", in the words of their leader Damien Abad.

"We are not used to LR happening," that is to say if the subject is "important", slipped one of them.

- "Postures" -

The question-and-answer session with the government in the afternoon was another highlight of Castagne. "You have decided to force through" but "it is not too late to put your reform in the closet," thundered the chairman of the Communist deputies André Chassaigne.

Philippe Vigier (Liberties and Territories) claimed that "Parliament is not a recording chamber". "You are walking alone against the street (...), alone against the right, alone against the left", stormed François Ruffin (LFI) again.

The Prime Minister tackled in response to "postures" and defended a "good reform", which will be "massively redistributive", including "for the most modest French".

Edouard Philippe also affirmed that the impact study was "very complete" and that "all the data are on the table" to start debates in Parliament.

The oppositions have not said their last word. The leaders of the left groups must meet at the end of the afternoon to "flatten the tools" allowing to "prevent the discussion" of the texts, according to the Communists.

They themselves suggest "a motion proposing to submit the bills to the referendum". The rebels have for their part put back on the table this weekend the draft motion of censure against the government.

The massive use of orders is also in their sights. The subject also worries within the majority: the general rapporteur Guillaume Gouffier-Cha (LREM) intends to ask that the parliamentarians be "associated" as much as possible in their future development by the government.

In parallel, the right-wing majority Senate, which must examine the texts in April-May, is also active. The conference of the presidents of the high assembly asked Tuesday the lifting of the accelerated procedure, which envisages a reduction of the parliamentary shuttle.

But this accelerated procedure, "it is the quasi use in the matter of pension reform", answered in advance the "Monsieur pensions" of the government, Laurent Pietraszewski. And the conference of presidents of the Assembly, whose agreement was necessary, ultimately refused the Senate's request.

A "walker" promises: "They are looking, they are looking for, and we are going to look for the answers" every time.

© 2020 AFP