Retirement committee cannot complete its work, unprecedented situation in the Assembly - France 24

Paris (AFP)

Drowned in thousands of amendments, the special committee on pensions in the Assembly put an end to its work Tuesday evening on the main aspect of the reform by stopping in the middle of the ford, a new situation.

It is therefore the government's version which will be examined from February 17 in the hemicycle, without the slight changes voted in committee.

"It is an observation that I reluctantly establish, that goes without saying," acknowledged the president of the commission Brigitte Bourguignon (LREM), while ensuring that "the work" accomplished "will not remain a dead letter".

Faced with the assumed obstruction of the rebels, who had tabled 19,000 of the 22,000 or so amendments, the committee stalled for nine days and stopped while it had almost 14,000 amendments left.

It will sit one last day on Wednesday to examine the organic side of the reform this time.

Since the constitutional revision of 2008, most of the draft laws are examined in session in their version modified by the commission. According to parliamentary sources, it has never happened since a committee failed to overcome the amendments tabled.

Between "waste" and "bitterness", the deputies of all sides recognized their "frustration" in front of the interruption of the works.

In the majority, the avalanche of LFI amendments is castigated, "a contempt for parliamentary work". "The oppositions must take responsibility," claims walker Marie Lebec.

- "Verdun" -

For its part, the opposition completely rejects the constrained parliamentary calendar for this reform. It is "not serious", according to the socialist Boris Vallaud while the leader of the deputies LR Damien Abad regrets the "sword stroke in the water" of the commission.

To "appease", the twenty or so amendments adopted in committee could be taken up by the general rapporteur Guillaume Gouffier-Cha (LREM).

Despite a few bursts of voice, the debates remained generally courteous for nine days. The same critics came back in loop with opponents: impact study "rigged", reform "fuzzy", or text "with holes" because of the thirty orders programmed by the government ...

The majority for its part defended a project of "social progress", with the minimum pension of 1,000 euros for full careers from 2022 or pensions for "women" presented as the "big winners" of the future system, which is disputed by the 'opposition.

The 75 hours of debate were like "the Verdun of politics, each in trenches (...) For a quarter of an hour good, you had three hours bad", according to a walker.

Will the blockage continue in the hemicycle, while the majority seeks adoption at first reading in early March, before the municipal elections?

- "Fireworks" -

The rebellious already mention a "fireworks" in session, in number of amendments. "We are going to make sure that they cannot finish on March 3 or when they need the 49-3", a weapon of the Constitution allowing to shorten the debates and to adopt the text without a vote, warns Eric Coquerel.

"The struggle continues on all fronts. Macron's obstinacy will be overcome," Jean-Luc Mélenchon tweeted Tuesday evening.

The three groups on the left - PS, PCF and LFI- also promise a motion of censure and a "referendum motion", perhaps at the opening of the debates, which could slow them down.

A majority official however wants to believe that the debates are "tenable" over three weeks - one more than expected at this stage - because there are "regulatory tools" reinforced during the session.

The government and LREM officials currently exclude the use of 49-3. "This would kill the debate, it is not an option considered", assures Marie Lebec (LREM), even if some "walkers" already warn that they will have "no political problem" to use it.

For Damien Abad (LR), 49-3 is "the atomic weapon. It is absolutely unthinkable in a bill like this one".

Meanwhile, the social movement continues, with five unions calling for a "dead day" in transport on February 17 and an inter-professional day of strikes set by the inter-union on February 20.

Tuesday evening, receiving the deputies of the majority, President Emmanuel Macron urged them to "sell this reform which is a justice reform", in order to adopt it definitively "before the summer".

© 2020 AFP