It is "a chestnut tree", agreed the senators: the rapporteur for the old age branch René-Paul Savary (LR) presented an amendment to the 2023 social security draft budget providing for a reform mechanism, validated by 195 votes for, 130 against and 19 abstentions.

He initially proposes the establishment of a "national convention" responsible for formulating measures for a return to balance, while taking into account hardship, long careers and employment of seniors.

In the event of failure, it provides for an acceleration of the Touraine reform extending the contribution period, and the postponement from 62 to 64 of the legal retirement age from the 1967 generation.

Emmanuel Macron said he was "open" to this combination at the end of October, after having proposed 65 during his presidential campaign.

Welcoming the "consistency" of Mr. Savary from one year to another, the Minister of Solidarity Jean-Christophe Combe assured to join him "on the objectives".

But "we made the choice of consultation and a bill in January, not a measure in a bill to finance Social Security", he opposed to him.

The question had been decided at the Élysée at the end of September.

"Message"

The majority Renaissance RDPI group came in support of the minister, stressing that "even the CGT is coming back to the discussion table, things are moving forward" with the government, which opened the consultation in early October with unions and employers.

But "it is time to act" in view of the "deficit of the old age branch so important", hammered the general rapporteur Elisabeth Doineau.

What is on the table is "a good compromise", boasted to AFP Hervé Marseille, president of the centrist Union group allied with the senatorial majority.

Some centrists, however, abstained, such as Jean-Marie Vanlerenberghe (MoDem) who considers that the amendment goes "a bit far" and that "this reform must be accepted socially and politically".

The left came out against it, judging that "there is no danger for the future of the system" according to communists and ecologists, and that the proposed reform would be "incredibly unfair" for those close to retirement, according to the socialists.

The government will certainly not retain this amendment in the end, by using article 49.3 of the Constitution before the National Assembly.

"We are under no illusions," admitted Philippe Mouiller (LR).

"We needed this political message" and "from our position, we are ready to discuss", he told the minister.

Deprived of an absolute majority in the Assembly, the government will seek the votes of the LRs to pass its reform.

These parliamentarians did not go to a progress report on the consultation made by the Minister of Labor Olivier Dussopt on Wednesday, but marked the coup on Saturday.

Fraud

"After the failure of the Macron reform of the first five-year term, the government's constant procrastination on this subject reflects its immense difficulty in reforming", noted the boss of the LR group Bruno Retailleau in a press release.

The senators completed the first reading of the Social Security draft budget at the end of the day, before its overall vote on Tuesday.

In the home stretch, they brought forward a measure to combat fraud by six months, to July 1, 2023, the date from which non-pension benefits can no longer be paid into non-European bank accounts.

The Minister of Public Accounts Gabriel Attal was not against it and announced that in the coming weeks he wanted to "set up an independent committee to assess social benefits fraud".

But the Senate gave a final warning shot: it rejected the national health insurance spending target for 2023 (Ondam), proposed at 244 billion euros.

This objective is "neither credible nor sincere", curried the rapporteur for this component Corinne Imbert (LR), at a time of the difficulties of the hospital.

© 2022 AFP