The debates restart at 4:00 p.m. at the Palais-Bourbon, after a first week in slow motion shaken by invectives and outbursts of tension in the hemicycle, until the exclusion for two weeks of a rebellious deputy for a controversial tweet on the Minister of Labor Olivier Dussopt, bearer of the reform.

The discussions will end Friday at midnight at first reading, whether or not the deputies have completed the examination of the bill, which will then go to the Senate.

The debates will be punctuated, Thursday, by a fifth day of action at the call of the inter-union.

Examination of the pension reform at the National Assembly, February 8, 2023 in Paris © JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP / Archives

Drowned under the 15,800 remaining amendments, will the deputies reach at least article 7 on the postponement of the legal age of departure to 64?

This is what the unions are calling for.

Sunday, the secretary general of the CFDT Laurent Berger denounced on RTL the "bullshit" of the obstruction, targeting France insubordinate at the origin of the vast majority of the amendments tabled.

He also deplored the "lamentable spectacle" in the Assembly, which has "nothing to do with the dignity of the street movement".

On the mobilization side, the demonstration on Saturday, more family-oriented, attracted between 963,000 and 2.5 million demonstrators according to the sources, and confirms the inter-union in its strategy.

The secretaries general of FO Frédéric Souillot (g), CFDT Laurent Berger (c) and CGT Philippe Martinez (d), during the 4th day of action against pension reform, February 11, 2023 in Paris © Christophe ARCHAMBAULT / AFP

After the new day of action Thursday, it raises the specter, if the government and the Parliament were to remain "deaf" to the demands, of a "France at a standstill" on March 7, after the school holidays.

"To block"

"Paralyzing and blocking the country would be counterproductive", reacted the president of the Renaissance deputies Aurore Bergé on BFMTV on Sunday, asking the unions to dialogue "beyond the pension reform on the question of work, job".

Because on retreats, everyone sticks to their positions.

Government spokesman Olivier Véran repeated the line of the executive on Sunday: "necessity" of postponing the legal age to 64 and "listening" to strengthen the "senior index" system during parliamentary debates, in order to encourage companies to keep the over 55s in employment.

Demonstration against pension reform, February 11, 2023 in Paris © Christophe ARCHAMBAULT / AFP

It is precisely on the employment of older employees that the deputies will resume their work on Monday, with a flurry of amendments in all camps.

The senior index, "it's decoration, but in the end it doesn't change anything in philosophy", tackles the ecologist Sandrine Rousseau.

The Nupes coalition then intends to defend its tracks of “alternative financing” for pensions, with a new call to tax the “superprofits” of the largest companies, a recurring debate in the Assembly since the summer.

Demonstration against pension reform in Bordeaux, February 11, 2023 © THIBAUD MORITZ / AFP

The presidential camp only has a relative majority in the Assembly, but the first votes rather reassured the macronists about the forces present in the hemicycle.

The left relies on the endurance of the street to stand up to the government.

Saturday evening on his blog, the LFI leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon proposed to the unions, "a new convergence" with "a call for a rally on a Saturday or Sunday in March to surround the action en masse".

For her part, the leader of the RN deputies, Marine Le Pen, who had not called for a demonstration, judged that after the mobilization on Saturday, "the executive (could) not continue to look elsewhere by refusing to hear the French".

The leader of RN deputies, Marine Le Pen during the examination of the pension reform at the National Assembly, February 7, 2023 in Paris © JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP / Archives

In the presidential ranks, many deputies fear that the far right will take advantage of the image reflected in the hemicycle.

"The Bordeaux left and the RN remains on its line of ideal son-in-law", the risk that Marine Le Pen takes advantage of it and gains points in the perspective of 2027 "terrorizes a lot of people", notes a Renaissance parliamentary source.

© 2023 AFP