Paris (AFP)

Defending himself from "gagging" the oppositions, the president of the National Assembly Richard Ferrand (LREM) warned Thursday that at the current rate of the debates on the pension reform, 150 sitting days would be necessary to complete his examination in the hemicycle.

In the morning, some 36,500 tabled amendments were still under discussion, "with an examination rate of 22.2 per hour" since the kick-off on Monday, stressed Mr. Ferrand before the deputies.

"At this rate, 1,643 hours of sitting will be necessary to complete the only ordinary law, that is, if the Assembly sits from Monday to Sunday evening (...) 150 days of sitting," added the holder of the perch.

Since the start, there have been 17 adjournments and 71 points of order.

The LR, LFI and PCF groups each spoke 20% of the time, the PS group 9.5%, LREM and MoDem 7% each. "It does not seem to me that the opposition was gagged since, in general, speaking times are inversely proportional to the size of the groups," noted the President of the Assembly.

"6% of deputies monopolize 40% of speaking time", calculated a parliamentary source LREM, with reference to the left of the left.

Mr Ferrand also pointed out new sub-amendments tabled by the oppositions, consisting in replacing for example the word "not" by "never", or the words "not one" by "none".

LFI and communist elected officials seek to "embolize the system", "a proven case of parliamentary sabotage", deplored before the press the boss of the deputies "walkers" Gilles Le Gendre.

"These two groups have taken responsibility for bringing the National Assembly to a standstill (and) will take responsibility for everything that can happen from now on," he warned.

At his side, the leader of the MoDem deputies Patrick Mignola said to have calculated that at the current rate the first MoDem amendment would be examined ... on May 26. He said that "the opposition wants to take us" to 49-3 but "we do not want them to inflict this brutality on us". This weapon of the Constitution allows the government to shorten debates and to pass a bill without a vote.

What is the point of continuing? "There may be a recovery," wants to believe still this centrist official.

© 2020 AFP