Paris (AFP)

Sluggish and energetic debut on Tuesday for the consideration in the Assembly of the thousands of amendments to the pension reform project: the oppositions have multiplied the criticisms and procedural battles against a "dismayed" majority continuing to plead for a "real debate ".

After initial discussions, sometimes rowdy, the day before on this project aiming to create a "universal" system of point-based pensions, reminders to the rules, suspensions or even requests for electronic voting and quorum were chained, interspersed with invective.

Tension had risen in the afternoon before even considering the first of some 41,000 amendments.

The Communists, very upset against a "project of social regression", reproached the "walkers" for "insulting the memory" of their political family by claiming to be Ambroise Croizat - one of the founding fathers of Social Security in 1945 - or of the ex-secretary general of the party Maurice Thorez. "You are + at the same time +, you would have been beautiful in the Resistance, you would have been + at the same time what? +", Launched the number one of the party Fabien Roussel, arousing the indignation of the majority.

Oppositions on the right and on the left judged it "vain and useless" (Eric Woerth, LR) to debate, because of the holding at the same time of the "financing conference" of the social partners, responsible for finding by April solutions to bring the pension system back to balance by 2027. But without notable progress on Tuesday.

"You are incredibly predictable" and there is a "desire that this debate does not take place", retorted the leader of the deputies LREM Gilles Le Gendre, who warned that the oppositions "do not enter (have) in the majority like in a saloon! ".

Without reaching - at this stage - the paralysis of July 2018 during the examination of the draft constitutional revision, collateral victim of the Benalla affair, there was electricity in the air throughout the evening. On several occasions, President Richard Ferrand (LREM) at the perch had to call for calm.

Challenging the "universal" nature of the reform, the oppositions notably proposed in the first amendments to change the term to "unfair" or to delete it.

Their attacks also focused on the idea that the reform created "a special regime, that of the hyper-rich" as claimed by Boris Vallaud (PS), for whom the majority has carried this "stigma" since the start of the five-year term and n do not stop "repaying their bookies", as many attacks rejected by LREM.

"Dear colleagues of the majority, you worry me, you are caught in an ideology which causes you mental cramps", also launched the communist André Chassaigne, while the rebellious Alexis Corbière (LFI) accused them of being "illegitimate", again causing a bronca.

- "Rooster fight" -

"This cock fight before we get to the heart of the project appeals to me a little," said Bruno Millienne (MoDem). "Let this Assembly work!" He thundered.

"We can have a form of anger when we see return to democracy delaying means", added the "walker" Aurore Bergé, saying that the French "expect better than hours of debate on the title of the bill"

Others said they were "armored" in the face of the obstruction and asked the opposition if it was "afraid" of debating, Secretary of State Laurent Pietraszewski also deploring their "refusal to debate the merits".

In the hope that the calendar can hold, the deputies will sit until March 6 with work this weekend. Richard Ferrand (LREM) laid down rules for the organization of the debates, with in particular only one speaker per group on the identical amendments, which was raised in particular by the left of the left.

The question of the use of the "49-3", a weapon of the Constitution which allows the government to shorten the debates and to have a bill passed without a vote, remains open, even if Laurent Pietraszewski insisted on Tuesday on a will to "debate, enrich the text" and "succeed".

The majority still count on an adoption at first reading before the municipal elections of March 15 and 22, and on a definitive green light "by the summer".

The deputies had studied Tuesday only one hundred amendments, all rejected.

© 2020 AFP