The Senate with a right-wing majority voted, Saturday evening March 4, the extinction of several special regimes, one of the most sensitive measures of the pension reform project, while pressure is mounting in the streets and businesses before the mobilization of March 7.

Electricians and gas workers, concerned like the RATP by this disappearance of their regime, began a renewable strike on Friday.

It leads to reductions in electricity production in several nuclear power plants, without causing cuts for customers. 

#Retirements: the Senate votes the extinction of five special regimes (RATP, IEG, Banque de France, Cese and clerks of notaries), by 233 votes for and 99 votes against#directSénat pic.twitter.com/7aTy1FZ72g

— Public Senate (@publicsenat) March 4, 2023

"If Emmanuel Macron does not want a France at a standstill and a dark week in energy, it would be better for him to withdraw his reform", warned Sébastien Ménesplier, secretary general of the CGT Energy.

"We will be capable of anything," warned Fabrice Coudour, Federal Secretary.

On tour in Africa, the head of state said on Saturday that he had "not much new to say".

>> To read: Pensions: the inter-union calls for an "unforgettable" mobilization on March 7

Gabriel Attal, for his part, raised his voice against the unions: it is "the French that they will block" and "the workers that they will bring to their knees", declared the Minister of Public Accounts, on the sidelines of a visit to the Salon de l'Agriculture, calling on opponents of the reform to "responsibility".

The mobilization of March 7 against the postponement from 62 to 64 of the legal retirement age promises to be massive.

According to police sources, the intelligence services expect between 1.1 and 1.4 million demonstrators throughout France.

A "left-wing reform"

The inter-union will meet on Tuesday evening to decide on the next steps: "there is no gravel between us", assured France Inter on Saturday, the secretary general of FO Frédéric Souillot.

“There will be general assemblies which will decide on the renewal or not” of the movement on the sites on strike.

In an interview with Le Parisien, the Minister of Labor Olivier Dussopt, a former socialist, defended a "left-wing reform which could have been carried out by a social-democratic government".

>> To see: Pension reform before the Senate: the bill in the hands of the right

The left, which has largely occupied the field in the Senate since the start of the debates on Thursday, argued all day against the first article of the government bill which provides for the gradual extinction of five special regimes (electricity and gas industries, RATP, Banque de France, notary clerks and employees, members of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council).

The right being almost absent from the discussion.

"You have decided to 'border' a major sector of our energy sovereignty", launched the president of the PS group Patrick Kanner to the address of the Minister of Labor.

"You are going to go down in the history of the gravediggers of our social protection".

"Mr. Minister, to use an expression consecrated by one of your colleagues, you have decided to borderline a major sector of our energy sovereignty" exclaims @PatrickKanner, against the end of the special regime for the electricity and gas industries. #Retreats pic.twitter.com/E5cj3P7VoA

— Public Senate (@publicsenat) March 4, 2023

Article 1 of the draft reform provides for the gradual extinction of the special regimes of the electricity and gas industries, the RATP, the Banque de France or the clerks and employees of notaries.

This will affect agents recruited from September 2023, who will be affiliated to the common law scheme for old-age insurance.  

The leader of the LR senators, Bruno Retailleau, wants these special schemes to also be abolished for current employees, but his proposal will be examined later.

The government is against, and its amendment could be rejected, for lack of support from the centrists.

"You haven't done anything for two days, we are working"

For the left, the end of special regimes is "an ideological and demagogic proposal", which will not generate financial gain.

The trades concerned “are they as painful yesterday as today?”, retorted the general rapporteur Élisabeth Doineau (Centrist Union).

"We must open our eyes, we are asking for efforts from all French people, whoever they are".

The debates will continue on Sunday on article 2, also sensitive, concerning the employment of seniors.

The climate hitherto very balanced was tense on Saturday evening, around an imbroglio on the publication of an "opinion" of the Council of State on the bill, insistently requested by the left.

The Minister of Labor assuring him that it is a "note" which does not have to be published.

>> To read: Pension reform in Parliament: the next key steps

"I thought I understood that I was not in the National Assembly", replied Olivier Dussopt when the socialist Marie-Pierre de La Gontrie questioned his "sincerity".

Acerbic exchange also between the latter, who launched on the right "you have not done anything for two days, we have been working", and the rapporteur LR René-Paul Savary, who retorted, praising the constancy of the senatorial majority on the question of pensions: "You prefer the effects of the platform to the efficiency of work".

The fit of tension was brief, far from the permanent heckling that had prevailed in the National Assembly.

In a forum at the JDD, four former presidents of the Assembly, Bernard Accoyer, Claude Bartolone, Jean-Louis Debré and François de Rugy have also denounced "a distressing spectacle", calling for "respect the National Assembly and its president ".

With AFP

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