The Constitutional Council will make its decisions on the controversial pension reform on Friday, April 14, "at the end of the day," it announced Wednesday, March 29 in a statement.

The "wise men" must make "two decisions": one on the constitutionality of the bill adopted in Parliament after an appeal to 49.3, and the other on the admissibility of the request for a referendum of shared initiative (RIP) launched by the left.

As is customary for each law, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne had directly seized the Constitutional Council on March 21 to verify the constitutionality of the text which raises the legal age of departure to 64 years.

This high state body is composed of nine members, appointed by the political power (President of the Republic, Presidents of the National Assembly and the Senate) and mostly from the ranks of the right, including for example former Prime Minister Alain Juppé. It is currently chaired by another former Prime Minister: Laurent Fabius, from the Socialist Party.

MPs and left-wing senators received on 4th April

Left-wing and RN deputies have each filed appeals to challenge the reform, and left-wing senators have done the same. The Constitutional Council will receive left-wing deputies in hearing on Tuesday, April 4 at 14:30 p.m., according to parliamentary sources.

The RN group, for its part, did not ask to be received, considering that its arguments were already included in its referral.

>> Read: Demonstrations, Constitutional Council, referendum... What is the follow-up to the pension reform?

The opposition parliamentarians denounce in particular the use of an amending budget of the Social Security and the deadlines for examination imposed by Article 47-1 of the Constitution. They believe that the "urgent" procedure has been "hijacked".

These parliamentarians also raise the issue of the senior index in companies, a "legislative rider" that would have no place in a budget text in their eyes.

On April 14, the Wise Men can decide to validate the entire text or to censor all or part of it.

Shared initiative referendum

The "wise men" must also decide on another procedure initiated by the left: the request for a referendum of shared initiative, a complex approach that has never succeeded so far.

Around 250 opposition MPs are proposing to submit to a referendum the fact that the legal retirement age "cannot be set beyond sixty-two years".

The Council must verify its admissibility, looking at whether the consultation concerns the areas of "the organisation of public authorities, reforms relating to economic, social or environmental policy and the public services which contribute to them".

Then could open the collection of citizen signatures. The quota to be reached corresponds to one tenth of the voters, or around 4.87 million signatures, within nine months, to pave the way for a referendum.

However, the organization of such a consultation does not suspend the possible promulgation of the text on pensions, according to the constitutionalist Anne-Charlène Bezzina.

With AFP and Reuters

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