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France: How pension reform exposed all political divisions

There will therefore be no vote on Thursday 8 June on the postponement of the legal retirement age in France. The President of the Assembly ruled that the amendments aimed at reversing the main provision of the government's reform were inadmissible. Nearly six months after the tabling of the bill in the Council of Ministers, opponents have, it seems, exhausted all remedies and the law must enter into force gradually from the beginning of the school year.

Left-wing deputies react to the pension reform with placards saying "64 years is no," at the National Assembly, March 20, 2023. © Lewis Joly / AP

Text by: Pierrick Bonno Follow

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Rarely has a piece of legislation caused so much tension in the Chamber. Yelling, points of order, suspensions of sittings, invective... On 16th March last the Prime Minister triggered Article 49.3 of the Constitution, the law was adopted without a vote in the hemicycle. Thousands of people spontaneously took to the streets. But today, the majority wants to turn the page, with more or less good faith.

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Political life is scars. We move forward, we have our bumps, our pods", relativizes Philippe Vigier, deputy of the MoDem, who recalls that "there were complicated moments: 1968, a million people in the street, General de Gaulle who leaves. François Mitterrand: you remember that he had complicated moments, a very low level of popularity. There have always been moments of very strong tension, it is difficult to govern the French.

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An authoritarian drift" of the head of state

The oppositions do not entirely share this view. This passage in force, it is the "authoritarian drift" of a man, according to the ecologist deputy Sandrine Rousseau: Emmanuel Macron, who "missed history, he brutalized a people, confides the deputy. It will remain like a pebble in his shoe. We are in a situation, in my opinion, very critical of democratic crisis." The communist Pierre Dharéville says it in other words, but the diagnosis is the same: "The way the debate was conducted from start to finish is a permanent hold-up. It is an anti-democratic measure at every stage.

Ecologists, communists, socialists, Insubordinates who have not always agreed, the Insubordinates relentlessly pursuing their strategy of obstruction. But the boat Nupes held the shock in the storm. At least this one, because the ship may rock during the next electoral appointments.

A fracture in LRs

The Republicans, on the other hand, have exposed their divisions. With this sling led by the very media deputy of the Lot Aurélien Pradié and a group divided in two. A psychodrama that has left traces internally, to hear the boss of the deputies LR Olivier Marleix. "Finally, today, I don't think anyone wants to relive this moment, which was rather difficult, painful," recalls the MP. But I think we come out more united.

Olivier Marleix confirms, and this is another lesson from this episode, that the government still cannot count on the Republicans to expand its majority. "Every time the government goes into what is our convictions, it will have a chance to find us in its path," he said. If he proposes texts contrary to our convictions, we will obviously not be there. ».

No coalition possible for the government

This is very clearly what this sequence of retreats has shown, and it is likely to last. So how can we manage to govern in the next four years without a majority? "In our political culture, we cannot move towards this art of compromise, of consensus," laments Dorian Dreuil, a political scientist at the Jean-Jaurès Foundation, classified rather to the left. Those who emerge most weakened from this situation are the government. How to govern after all these demonstrations, when we have lost the battle of opinion?

The only winner is obviously the National Rally. All opinion polls show that Marine Le Pen has scored points in recent months by silently opposing the pension reform in the hemicycle. With a message: "Vote for me in 2027 and this reform will be repealed". But the road to the next presidential election is still very long and strewn with pitfalls.

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• France
• French politics
• Employment and Labour
• Social issues
• Emmanuel Macron