At the initiative of the Communists, a hundred deputies from the left alliance tabled a "referendum motion", then the RN deputies.

These requests aim to suspend the examination of a text in order to submit it to a referendum.

But only one of these motions will be submitted to the vote of the Assembly, before the general discussion on the bill.

The decision will be taken at the conference of presidents at the Palais Bourbon.

The leader of the deputies La France insoumise Mathilde Panot assured on BFMTV that the text of the Nupes would be debated first because the deputies of the left alliance tabled it before and are more numerous than those of the extreme party. right.

The president of the National Rally Jordan Bardella affirmed that his formation was ready to vote for the Nupes motion.

"I can vote for yours", "if we ask the same thing!", He said to Mathilde Panot.

Opposed to the two elected during the same debate, government spokesman Olivier Véran reaffirmed that there had "never been a pension reform that passed by referendum".

"You had a chance at scratching, a chance at drawing," he said, noting that Nupes and RN had lost the presidential and legislative elections in the spring.

"Whether you come in the third session to tell us + now we are going to hold a referendum +, no, it does not work like that", he insisted.

Government spokesman Olivier Véran at the National Assembly, January 10, 2023 in Paris © JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP/Archives

Strongly opposed to the postponement to 64 of the legal retirement age, like the whole of the left alliance, the national secretary of the PCF Fabien Roussel estimated Tuesday on CNews that the government had "chosen the blockage and confrontation".

"We have to get out of this crisis from above. This is why we are proposing to give the floor back to the people and to do so by means of a referendum", he underlined.

The four leaders of Nupes in the Assembly, André Chassaigne (PCF), Mathilde Panot (LFI), Boris Vallaud (PS) and Cyrielle Chatelain (EELV) signed the motion.

"A referendum is a real democratic obligation", they justify in the explanatory memorandum.

The RN group led by Marine Le Pen, also opposed to the government project, wants for its part "to restore its letters of nobility to popular sovereignty by giving the choice to the French to decide on the future of the social model of their country", according to a statement.

"Besides, the President of the Republic himself had mentioned, during the interval between the presidential elections, the possibility of having his reforms validated by the direct vote of the French people in a referendum", he notes. .

Marine Le Pen and Sébastien Chenu of the RN group at the National Assembly, January 24, 2023 in Paris © BERTRAND GUAY / AFP

If one or the other managed to have their "referendum motion" voted on on February 6 by the Assembly, which is far from being won, it would be immediately transmitted to the Senate which should decide within 30 days.

But even if adopted by both chambers, it is only a referendum proposal made to the president, free or not to follow up.

The Republican deputies, who should mainly vote for the reform, have made it known that they will not vote for a referendum motion, which makes any adoption unlikely.

The LFI group will also defend on the same date a motion for prior rejection of the text, a more traditional procedure which results in the cessation of the examination of a text.

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© 2023 AFP