The deputies examine until Friday, in special committee, the 22,000 amendments tabled with a view to examining the pension reform bill. Enough to undermine the government's desire for speed on this text. For our editorialist Nicolas Beytout, the executive has failed to manage its calendar.

EDITORIAL

Since Monday, the National Assembly examines in a Special Commission the pension reform bill. The majority must face the maneuvers assumed of parliamentary obstruction of the opposition, France rebellious having tabled alone some 19,000 amendments. However, the government still hopes to be able to move very quickly. But for our editorial writer Nicolas Beytout, the executive, wanting to maintain its calendar, could give the impression of passing in force.

"The examination by the National Assembly of the pension law began on Monday afternoon, in the Special Commission. Because everything has become" special "in this reform, a little as if nothing could happen normally. the 46 days of strike of the SNCF and the RATP, after the numerous work stoppages of professions which had hitherto never imagined going on strike - I think of lawyers, for example - another record has just been beaten : that of the number of amendments tabled on a bill during this legislature, more than 22,000, including nearly 19,000 by France alone.

The government denounces a deliberate desire for obstruction, without it impressing the least Jean-Luc Mélenchon who claims it clearly: he wants to block the examination of the bill. Or at the very least sand it in parliamentary debates. Its objective is to drag things beyond the next municipal elections.

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The calendar is racing

The government wants to move quickly. He even declared an emergency so that the law was adopted at the latest within a month. Which is very short for a text of this magnitude. We therefore find ourselves in the somewhat schizophrenic situation of having had more than 2 years of consultation with the former High Commissioner for Pensions, but of seeing the bill voted in a few dozen hours, without even being able to go deeper into the text itself, let alone peel the report on the real impact of this reform on the lives of all French people.

Even stranger, the vote must take place quickly, before the financial framework is fixed. The financing conference called for by the CFDT has until the end of April to find the miracle recipe. Finally, icing on the cake, the government plans that this law, once voted, will be followed by 29 orders to manage all aspects, all angles of this masterful transformation.

The shadow of 49-3

In short, it is a bit of the story of the hare and the turtle, but which should not end as in the fable of La Fontaine. It is the hare, this time, which has almost all the assets to win, thanks in particular to an arsenal of rules which make it possible to frame the work of the members of parliament to circumvent this kind of obstruction. But there remains a scenario in which, as in the fable, the hare loses control of the race against time.

This scenario is that of 49-3, this article which allows the government to pass a law without a vote, unless the opposition - which is very unlikely - succeeds in passing a motion of censure. In fact, this article has become synonymous with a democratic coup. To use it would be a political failure of the government, which would give this already contested pension reform a terrible air of illegitimacy. We can be for or against this reform, but one thing is certain: in this affair, the government completely missed its time management. "