Pensions: the debates end in confusion in the Assembly, the text goes to the Senate

Alexandre Chauveau with AFP 6:44 a.m., February 18, 2023, modified at 6:46 a.m., February 18, 2023

The debate on Emmanuel Macron's flagship reform ended as planned at midnight sharp, due to the accelerated legislative procedure.

“The government will submit to the Senate the text it initially presented, modified by the amendments voted on,” announced Labor Minister Olivier Dussopt.

Elisabeth Borne announced that the government would retain measures favorable to primary school teachers, the liberal professions, agricultural pensions, retirees in Mayotte, and "long careers".

>> Find Europe morning weekend 6-8 in podcast and replay here

The culmination of two weeks of debates at best tense, at worst chaotic, Olivier Dussopt reserved his last words for the rebellious: "You insulted me for 15 days, no one cracked and we are here, in front of you, to the reform", he launched, furious.

Some LFI deputies came out singing "we are here, we are there", before deputies from the majority, the right and the RN sang a Marseillaise.

"Macron in check in the Assembly. Retirement at 64 has not passed", reacted even before the end of the debates the leader of LFI Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

"This reform has no parliamentary legitimacy", added the president of the group Mathilde Panot.

The debates were interrupted far from the famous article 7

Unsurprisingly given the number of remaining amendments, mainly rebellious, and the deadline set at midnight, the debates were interrupted very far from the famous article 7 on the postponement of the legal age to 64 years. 

Throughout the evening, the discussion focused on the contribution period for retirees who can benefit from the "long career" scheme, that is to say those who entered the world of work before the age of 21.

43 or 44 years old?

The question has not been clearly resolved, despite the insistence of LR deputies, led by Aurélien Pradié, who demand that all the workers concerned can leave after 43 years of contributions, without the legal age being a barrier.

"I will never say before the National Assembly that the contribution period would be a ceiling", declared Olivier Dussopt, considering that it would be "lying".

"We cannot come out of all this with doubts," replied Aurélien Pradié, asking for a clear position.

The motion of censure of the RN largely rejected by the Assembly

The Assembly largely rejected on the night of Friday to Saturday a motion of censure tabled by the National Rally (RN) against the government.

Unsurprisingly, with only 89 votes collected, the RN motion defended by Marine Le Pen on the sidelines of the pension reform project was rejected.

The text is now expected in the Senate, on February 28 in committee, then on March 2 in the hemicycle.

See you in the Senate and on the street

The parliamentary left is divided on the strategy to adopt, environmentalists regretting to AFP "a strategic failure" of LFI.

“I regret that a number of Nupes groups have somehow chosen to abandon their amendments, to give up the battle and to leave us alone to hold out until the end”, declared for his part the rebellious Manual Bompard.

The unions were urging the left alliance to go through with this key article of the reform bill.

"The National Assembly gives a sorry spectacle, in contempt of the workers. Shameful", reacted in the evening the secretary general of the CFDT Laurent Berger. 

France stopped on March 7?

The latest demonstrations gathered Thursday 1.3 million people according to the CGT and 440,000 according to the Interior.

This is the lowest figure since the start of the mobilization, pending March 7 when the unions threaten to put the country "at a standstill" if the government does not withdraw the reform.

The CGT called on Friday for a renewable strike in the refineries from Monday March 6.

On the left, attention is focused on these upcoming mobilizations.

"We think of the social movement. I hope that the sequence will not weaken it. In 2020 we were exhausted but proud, there not", blows a source within the communist group.

"On March 7, we will make you bend," promised Matthias Tavel (LFI).

In the hemicycle, the tone had already risen between the government and the RN, Marine Le Pen accusing the executive of having the "objective" of "lowering" the incomes of retirees, which Gabriel Attal challenged, the Minister of Public Accounts.

"You have no solution to offer (...) the French see it," he accused.

"The challenge is who will impose his story," said an elected Renaissance, as it seems difficult to say who from the government or the opposition emerges strengthened from this first parliamentary round.