Article 1 of the Liot bill not debated? Manuel Bompard denounces a "democratic robbery"

Ophélie Artaud 11:43 am, June 04, 2023, modified at 11:50 am, June 04, 2023

Is this the last chance for the opposition to repeal the pension reform? This Sunday morning, the implementing decree on the raising of the retirement age to 64 years was published in the Official Journal, but the debates continue. Thursday, June 8 will be discussed in the National Assembly the bill of the group Freedoms, Independents, Overseas and Territories (Liot) to repeal the reform. But the text that the deputies are expected to debate will be very different from the initial bill of the Liot group: last Wednesday, the Social Affairs Committee of the National Assembly decided to reject Article 1, which planned to repeal the postponement of the retirement age to 64 years. A vote that empties the text of its main article and that provoked the anger of the deputies of the Nupes.

Invited this Sunday of the Grand Rendez-vous d'Europe 1 / CNews / Les Échos, Manuel Bompard, the coordinator of the France insoumise and deputy of the Bouches-du-Rhône spoke on the subject and denounced a "democratic robbery", considering that "it would be incredible if we could not vote on this pension reform".

"A vote in committee is not a vote in the National Assembly"

However, last Thursday, at the microphone of Europe 1, the President of the National Assembly Yaël Braun-Pivet confirmed that Article 1 of the Liot bill had "a low chance" of being on the agenda on June 8, and therefore of being debated by deputies. An inconceivable situation for the coordinator of the rebellious France. "All parliamentary case law is very clear on the subject. When a bill has been deemed admissible and it is the President of the National Assembly who has deemed it admissible, how to put the text of the law back in its current state would be inadmissible when the initial text was admissible?" he asked. "There was a vote in committee, but a vote in committee is not a vote in the National Assembly. And for a very simple reason, it is that the committee was not like the whole hemicycle."

>> READ ALSO - The Liot bill not debated? "We wonder what Parliament is for," says Bertrand Pancher

For Manuel Bompard, "there must be a vote on Thursday. And if the president of the National Assembly does not want to allow there to be a vote on Thursday, she will take a very heavy responsibility," he insists, while a new day of mobilization against the pension reform will take place on Tuesday. "I think the level of popular pressure needs to be further increased to allow the review in the National Assembly on Thursday. It would still be amazing if we could not vote on this pension reform," he said.

The "battle" against the pension reform "will never stop"

"When the Liot group says, in its parliamentary niche, that it will put in place a repeal law so that the Assembly can vote, the government multiplies the maneuvers, the intimidation, the confusion, the pressure to prevent MPs from voting. It's unacceptable, it's unbearable," says Manuel Bompard.

>> READ ALSO - Rejection of the repeal of retirement at 64: "Everything was done according to the rules," replies Yaël Braun-Pivet to the oppositions

Regardless of the outcome of the debates Thursday in the National Assembly, for Manuel Bompard, the pension reform is not behind us. "As long as there is an opportunity to go back on the pension reform, I will continue to fight and I am sure that there are hundreds and millions of people in this country who will continue to fight. And if in the end, they prevent us from voting, if in the end, they prevent us from being able to express ourselves freely, we will continue to fight and in the next elections, we will defend the pension reform and the return to retirement at 60. This battle, it will continue all the time, it will never stop, "he concludes at the microphone of the Grand Rendez-vous.