14 April: parliamentarians have all ticked in their agendas the date on which the Constitutional Council will decide on the very controversial pension reform, adopted by forceps with the use of 49.3.

In the meantime, it's the phoney war at the Palais Bourbon, where each side is planning "seminars" and other meetings next week to close ranks.

On the left, all the deputies of the Nupes coalition have an appointment Tuesday evening in the Assembly to discuss strategy and cohesion. On the program, according to the head of the green group Cyrielle Chatelain, an exchange on the "continuity of the fight on pensions".

At the initiative of the communists, the parliamentarians of the left have planned in the morning Tuesday a "republican procession" of the Assembly at the Elysee, to ask Emmanuel Macron the withdrawal of the 64 years.

To ward off a "weakening of the struggle", LFI leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon is calling for a "general strike" on April 6 during the next day of mobilization.

In the opposite camp, it is the Renaissance deputies who will meet Wednesday in "seminar" to "work together on the reform agenda and the working method".

"We temporize, we calm the game. In any case, we are not audible, "slips an executive of the Macronist group. "We must take advantage" of the period to "show that our institutions hold," he insists, even if he does not see "how we will save a reshuffle" ministerial, after the sequence of pensions.

The National Assembly during the debate on the pension reform, February 16, 2023 © Ludovic MARIN / AFP / Archives

And in the presidential majority, allies MoDem and Horizons call to "bounce back". "This legislature will not stop with this pension reform," said Jean-Paul Mattei, the boss of the MoDem group, who would like to "refocus on important texts for our society", on "housing", for example.

The leaders of parliamentary groups and parties are also supposed to go to Elisabeth Borne's home from next week to discuss the aftermath.

"Listen to the people"

The France Insoumise, which demands the withdrawal of the reform, a referendum or a dissolution of the Assembly, has already indicated that it will boycott this meeting in Matignon.

The Communists did the same. "It is at the Elysee that everything is decided unfortunately," commented the national secretary, Fabien Roussel.

Marine Le Pen during a question session with the government at the National Assembly, March 21, 2023 © Emmanuel DUNAND / AFP/Archives

At the National Rally, "we will go. But to demand the withdrawal of the reform and to listen to the people," said Marine Le Pen's group.

Despite this tug-of-war, texts continue to be examined in the Assembly and to be voted on, sometimes very widely.

This is the case of the revival of nuclear power, adopted by 402 votes against 130 on March 21 at first reading, with the support of LR, the RN and communists. And the law on the Olympic Games and its vast security component, very comfortably validated Tuesday, with the support of the right and the extreme right.

So many elections immediately welcomed by the government, which repeats that "co-construction" is not impossible, despite the electric social context.

Since Monday, during a transpartisan week, unanimity has multiplied for consensual texts, such as the one on the financing of driver's licenses.

La France Insoumise deputies Mathilde Panot and Manuel Bompard converse during a question session with the government at the National Assembly, March 21, 2023 © Emmanuel DUNAND / AFP

In a sometimes relaxed atmosphere, as when the president of the session and rebellious MP Caroline Fiat greeted at the perch the retirement of "Philippe, dishwasher of the refreshment bar, who makes his last day today", to the applause of elected representatives from several benches.

But what about the next few weeks? The parliamentary agenda is as uncertain as it is clear, after the postponement sine die of the immigration bill, and its sausage into "several texts" on a horizon still unknown.

"Shorter texts", "majority of projects": this is the mantra of the Macronists who promise once again a "new method", as they did in June after the legislative elections, for lack of an absolute majority in the hemicycle.

© 2023 AFP