They denounced "the cinema", "the big horn" and an infringement of the right of amendment. The deputies of the majority deserted the hemicycle for about thirty minutes, Tuesday at the end of the evening, to protest against the "obstruction" of the rebellious and the Communists and their "litany" of amendments "without any interest", during the review of the pension reform. The tone also rose at the very end of the session, at the conclusion of an "eventful evening" completed around 1 am on Wednesday.
From 23:35 to 12:10, only the group presidents Gilles Le Gendre (LREM) and Patrick Mignola (MoDem) remained in the hemicycle to represent their troops in the face of the opposition. "We have just started a series of all identical amendments, with once again the clear desire to make the debate unnecessarily last," pointed out Gilles Le Gendre. "It is our right to challenge the nature of these debates, we do not wish to participate in them." "We are waiting for the litany to end before returning to the session for the substantive debate," said Roland Lescure (LREM), in the corridors of the Palais Bourbon.
"Staging" of the majority
The amendments concerned proposed a series of date changes for the entry into force of the various transitions of the pension reform. The oppositions then chained reminders of the regulations to denounce a "staging" of the majority, according to the deputy (LR) Stéphane Viry, or "cinema" for the communist André Chassaigne. Socialist Boris Vallaud saw it as a "striking summary of the way the majority views Parliament".
According to the deputy Liberties and Territories Jean Lassalle, "a majority must assume. What they do (the LREM and the MoDem) is not quite nifty, not up to the national representation".
"You are nothing!"
After the majority returned to the hemicycle, it was a statement by co-rapporteur Nicolas Turquois (MoDem) that set fire to the powder: "Some said 'the Republic is me' (allusion to the 'Insubmissive Jean-Luc Mélenchon), well, the Republic is us and you, you are nothing ", he launched to the opposition. The oppositions then castigated a "slippage" of a rapporteur who "lost his nerves". The chairman Hugues Renson acknowledged "excessive remarks" by Nicolas Turquois, who also apologized. Prior to these incidents, each side transferred responsibility for the "obstruction" and "the absurdity" of the proceedings.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe asked LREM deputies to "stand still" in the face of "obstruction" from the left of the left, while ensuring that, if necessary, he would take on his "responsibilities" by resorting to 49- 3, weapon of the Constitution allowing to adopt a text without vote.
President's Desires Registration Chamber
On the side of LFI, François Ruffin conceded in the hemicycle "the side a little absurd" and the "nonsense" of "these amendments which one threads in series". But this nonsense responds, according to him, to the "institutional nonsense" of the Fifth Republic, with "such a concentration of powers in the hands of the executive, which completely crushes the legislature".
"We can only respond to an absurdity by another absurdity. Faced with a Parliament which is a chamber for recording the desires of the president (Emmanuel Macron), the only thing we can do is at least slow down this recording, "he said.