This fifth branch comes in addition to the four existing branches (illness, accidents at work, retirement, family) of Social Security to cover the risks of life linked to loss of autonomy and disability.

The Parliament adopted definitively Thursday, by a final vote of the Assembly, the bills on the social debt, which strongly dig the "hole of the Social security" after the coronavirus and validate the creation of a 5th branch devoted to the Autonomy loss. The two texts - organic and ordinary - were adopted by 331 votes against 56 and 43 abstentions for the first, and by show of hands for the second, with the support of the majority LREM, MoDem and Agir, the other groups voting mainly against or abstaining.

>> 5th branch of the Social Security: "We must prepare for the demographic evolution of France"

The new Minister in charge of Autonomy Brigitte Bourguignon praised in front of the deputies a text which "will guide for a long time the system of social protection". She saw in the creation of a 5th branch "autonomy", formally registered in the text by the deputies, the "first stone of a great reform" of the great age and the autonomy which it will have "at the heart of carry".

The minister recalled that a mission must deliver its conclusions in September so "that all the consequences in terms of financing and governance of the branch can be drawn in the next" draft budget of the Social Security. The objective is to release "at least one billion euros by 2021", she recalled.

"The cart before the horse"

Several elected members of the majority in the wake of a "historic" decision with the creation of the new branch, rejecting the criticisms of the oppositions on the idea that it is only an "empty shell". To greet the laying "of the foundations" of the branch, Cyrille Isaac-Sibille (MoDem) even symbolically brandished a white stone picked up "in the gardens of the Assembly".

But both right and left oppositions have criticized them for having "put the cart before the horse", like Jeanine Dubié (Liberties and Territories). Socialist Joël Aviragnet estimated that it is for the moment "only an announcement" and that there is "a wolf" on its funding. It's a "pretty label on a jar without jam", added Pierre Dharréville (PCF), while François Ruffin (LFI) mocked an old age risk launched "without a round".