Pension reform: decisive day in Parliament, the Republicans at the heart of the negotiations

The National Assembly is due to vote, Thursday, March 16, 2023, the pension reform project. The choice made by Republican deputies will be crucial for the presidential cam. AP - Christophe Ena

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This Thursday, March 16 is the day of all dangers for the French government. Parliament must vote definitively on the pension reform bill, which aims in particular to raise the legal retirement age from 62 to 64 years. No mystery in the Senate where the text should be adopted without difficulty. But in the National Assembly, the suspense is total. And the Republicans still have the fate of this reform in their hands.

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The final group meeting held Wednesday evening at the National Assembly to clarify everyone's positions will not have served much purpose. According to a close friend of Olivier Marleix, the boss of the group The Republicans at the Palais Bourbon, between 34 and 36 deputies out of 61 are certain to vote for the pension reform.

The crucial question is what the others will do: will they abstain, will they vote against? Calculations to the voice that the leadership of the Republicans brings back in real time to Matignon. Because for the presidential camp, every vote counts, and better for example an additional abstention than one more vote against the text.

► Read also: Pension reform: the government in the dark

The discussions of the joint committee on long careers in particular have obviously not moved the lines. Only three or four MPs could change their vote, according to a parliamentary source. But some LRs intend to hide their cards until the last minute.

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The vagueness will be maintained until the time of the vote. Because our objective is not the 49-3, it is to push the government to take the risk of organizing a vote so that it fails, "says a close friend of MP Aurélien Pradié, opposed to the project. The lying poker game will last until the end.

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