The kick-off of the debates will be given at 4:00 p.m., in a hemicycle which promises to be packed for this battle around the postponement of the legal age of departure from 62 to 64, a flagship reform of Emmanuel Macron's second five-year term.

On the bench of the government, the Minister of Labor Olivier Dussopt will not be alone, but surrounded by colleagues from Bercy for this budgetary text.

While this key minister is weakened by suspicions of "favoritism" in the awarding of a public contract when he was mayor of Annonay, Elisabeth Borne and the presidential majority united around him during the weekend.

With the approach of two days of action, Tuesday and Saturday at the call of the inter-union, the head of government hammered that with this legal age at 64, "we are asking for a collective effort from the French" but " our goal is to ensure the future of our pay-as-you-go pension system".

In a last-minute concession, Ms. Borne announced that people who started working between the ages of 20 and 21 will be able to retire at 63, by extending the long career system - a request from LR deputies, whose voices are crucial.

Will this gesture be enough in the eyes of the right?

Not for Aurélien Pradié in particular, who points to a "deception" and asks to go further for those who started contributing early.

On the union side either, we are not convinced: it is a "patch" which "is not the" expected "response to the massive mobilization observed", denounced Laurent Berger, the boss of the CFDT.

Labor Minister Olivier Dussopt delivers a speech at the National Assembly in Paris on January 31, 2023 © STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP

Already two days of strikes and demonstrations, on January 19 and 31, each time brought together more than a million demonstrators according to the police, more than two million according to the organizers, and the last exceeded the 2010 participation record.

This time, "we combined a weekday and a Saturday, we will see on all of the two days, despite this school holiday period", recalled Friday the secretary general of the CGT, Philippe Martinez.

Traffic will be severely disrupted on Tuesday at SNCF and RATP, and one in five flights at Orly will not be insured.

"Project against project"

Monday at the Palais Bourbon, the LFI deputies will immediately defend a request for the rejection of the entire reform, "brutal" and "unfair".

The vote on their motion could give some cold sweats to the presidential camp.

Then the RN group, also against the 64-year-olds, will bring its request for a referendum on the reform, which has little chance of being validated by the Assembly.

Those who do not vote for it "can no longer call themselves opposition", warned party president Jordan Bardella.

The deputies will then tackle the some 20,000 amendments tabled on the bill, including 13,000 by LFI - "stupid and nasty obstruction" on the part of the left alliance, curry government spokesman Olivier Véran .

Ms. Borne said she hoped "that the oppositions will withdraw some of their amendments and that we can have a real debate, project against project", instead of "caricatures" until then, according to her.

But this flow of amendments "makes it possible to manage the tempo a little, to speed up, to slow down", instead of letting the rhythm be dictated, opposes the rebellious François Ruffin, who wants with the Nupes to be able to relay in the hemicycle "the life of people", "the France of reality".

The macronists, who only have a relative majority, are not immune to mishaps during votes, as happened in committee last week.

And if the Assembly does not come to the end of the amendments by midnight February 17, the text will still be able to pass to the Senate, due to the choice of the executive to resort to an amending budget from the Secu.

This constrained time is strongly criticized by the oppositions, which nevertheless intend to manage to discuss article 7 devoted to the postponement of the retirement age.

The other hot spots of the text focus on the situation of women, who could be losers with the decline in the retirement age, the difficulty or even the employment of seniors.

© 2023 AFP