Pension reform: the text passes the milestone of the commission in the Senate

Alexis Delafontaine, with AFP 7:08 p.m., February 28, 2023

The senators, mostly on the right, completed Tuesday the committee review of the highly controversial pension reform project.

Several amendments were retained, in particular in favor of mothers and the employment of seniors.

The senators will now meet, Thursday afternoon, for the kick-off of the debates in the hemicycle.

Deprived of a vote of the National Assembly by the obstruction of the deputies of La France insoumise, the executive counts on the Senate to confer democratic legitimacy on a reform which two thirds of the French (66%) do not want, d 'after an Odoxa survey.

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Debates in the Senate which will decide with those of the Assembly

The next day of mobilization, March 7, promises to be very popular and all the SNCF unions are calling for a strike that can be extended from this date.

In the meantime, the debates in the Senate, renowned for its hushed climate, could contrast with the strong tensions experienced by the National Assembly.

The amendments approved Tuesday in committee will have to be voted on again in session, as required by the rule applicable to budgetary texts.

Several have been retained.

One, considered essential by the right, aims to grant a "surcharge" to mothers who have a full career.

The senators also propose a new CDI formula, exempt from certain social security contributions, to facilitate the hiring of seniors.

The executive has multiplied in recent days the gestures of openness towards the right, the majority in the hemicycle.

"I hope that the Senate can enrich" the text, said President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday in the spans of the Salon de l'Agriculture.

"We will listen to the Senate's proposals and we will find a way together," said Elisabeth Borne on Monday, whose popularity rating shows a further drop of two points in February to 29%, according to the Odoxa poll.

The head of government also said she was ready, on Tuesday in Elle magazine, to study "wage bonuses" for women "before the third child", a new hand extended to the Republicans.

Difficult for the senatorial right to deviate

The president of the LR senators, Bruno Retailleau, said Monday, in an interview with AFP, that his group "will not be one-upmanship".

In the National Assembly, the government had a lot to do with the LR deputies, in particular Aurélien Pradié, since dismissed from his position as number 2 of the Republicans.

This does not prevent the deputy from Lot from remaining very virulent against his party, which he accused, on Tuesday on France Inter, of being "an accomplice of the government" in the debate on pensions.

The senatorial right can hardly change its mind by not voting for a reform it has been calling for for several years.

Bruno Retailleau has, moreover, announced to see the Prime Minister again on Wednesday with Gérard Larcher, the LR president of the Senate.

The deputies, embroiled in heated debates punctuated by repeated session incidents, were only able to fully examine two of the 20 articles of the text in two weeks.

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The "real playing card" of the Senate

It is therefore on the text of the government, barely modified, that the Social Affairs Committee of the Senate worked, under the leadership of its general rapporteur Élisabeth Doineau, centrist Macron-compatible, and the rapporteur for the Old Age branch René- Paul Savary, the "M. Retirement" of the LR group.

LR and centrists recognize "differences" between them on certain subjects, such as long careers or special pension schemes, but are confident in their ability to "overcome" them.

The Senate has "a real card to play" in relation to the National Assembly by showing itself as "a responsible counter-power and respectful of sensitivities", we emphasize on the side of Petit Luxembourg.

But, with nearly a hundred senators, the left intends to make its opposition heard.

The three groups - PS, CRCE with a communist majority and ecologist - will present their strategy together on Wednesday.

"We want the 20 articles of the law to be dealt with," said socialist leader Patrick Kanner in an interview with the newspaper Les Echos on Sunday.

The left alliance Nupes continues to multiply meetings.

"We don't give up, we're here," chanted activists in Amiens on Monday evening.

In the street, the showdown will harden.

The inter-union called "to seize March 8, international day of struggle for women's rights, to denounce everywhere the major social injustice of this pension reform against women".

In the Senate, the debates will end on Sunday, March 12.

If at midnight, the senators have not voted on the entire text, it will still be sent to a joint joint committee, which brings together seven deputies and seven senators.