MPs began debating the government’s controversial bill on Monday afternoon in an electric atmosphere. The two motions of the opposition were nevertheless rejected, opening the way to the examination of the text.
“Do you think we are going to spend a fortnight like this in the hemicycle?” almost strangles Yaël Braun-Pivet, the President of the National Assembly. From the benches of Nupes, we hear the answer: a powerful “Yes !” Something to annoy the occupant of the perch who retorts: “Here, we are not in an amphitheater or a demonstration, we are in the hemicycle.” It has not been 45 minutes since the deputies began to debate the pension reform, Monday, February 6, and the tension is already at its height. In reality, the standoff between the majority and the opposition began well before the start of the examination of the text, at 4 p.m.
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“The debates will be electric, automatically”, had predicted the deputy of the National Rally (RN), Thomas Ménagé, two hours earlier. It is also the far-right group that launched this marathon day by organizing a press conference around 2 p.m. “Our deputies have been scouring your trays for a long time to explain the injustice and uselessness of this reform”, assures the press Marine Le Pen. Its deputies must defend their referendum motion, aimed at submitting the government’s project to the people. It is precisely this initiative that will set fire to the powder.
A new referendum motion tabled “for nothing”
While the president of the RN group is unfolding her arguments, four other group presidents pass, shortly before 3 p.m., a few meters away, in the Salle des Quatre Colonnes, a place where journalists can interview parliamentarians who enter or leave the hemicycle. There are Charles de Courson and Bertrand Pancher (LIOT), Mathilde Panot of La France insoumise (LFI), Cyrielle Chatelain of Europe Ecologie – Les Verts (EELV) and André Chassaigne of the Communist Party (PCF). His pile of paper under his arm, Charles de Courson announces that he is going to table a new referendum motion.
The LIOT group, made up of elected representatives from overseas, center-right and center-left deputies, managed, with the support of Nupes, to gather the 58 signatures necessary to table this new referendum motion. The signatories contest the decision taken at the conference of presidents the previous week to draw lots between the referendum motion of the Nupes and that of the RN, designated by chance. In front of numerous cameras, they denounce “a denial of democracy” and ask for a new draw.
A heckled Olivier Dussopt and a suspended session
They are immediately opposed to an end of inadmissibility. “This motion will be recorded for nothing, the draw has already taken place”entrusts to franceinfo the entourage of Yael Braun-Pivet. Yet it is this subject that will ignite the benches of the National Assembly from 4 p.m. As soon as they were seated, the deputies of Nupes and LIOT chained points of order to request a new conference of presidents. In a persistent hubbub, the President of the National Assembly tries to defend her position: “We will not redo a draw”.
“I don’t know where the denial of democracy is when the President of the National Assembly cannot express herself?”
Yaël Braun-Pivet, President of the National Assemblyat the roost
It’s 4:22 p.m. The floor is with Olivier Dussopt, Minister of Labour. The crash of the desks on the side of the Nupes covers every word of the one who is on the front line to defend the reform. The leader of the Insoumis Mathilde Panot is standing and invective Yaël Braun-Pivet. His colleague François Ruffin points to the perch. “You don’t have to hit the desks”, tries the president of the Assembly, while the communist deputy Sébastien Jumel brandishes his rules of procedure. A return to calm seems impossible. Yael Braun-Pivet has no choice but to suspend the sitting. It’s 4:24 p.m. “There are tensions resulting from the method, which do not facilitate anything”analyzes the deputy LR Philippe Gosselin, in front of the journalists.
A few meters further, the socialist deputy Arthur Delaporte gets carried away in front of the press against the president of the Assembly: “She should not have let the minister go to the podium. We hope she will come to her senses.” In the ranks of the majority, we blurt out: “We knew it…” A way of saying that we had few illusions about the smooth running of the debates. A few minutes later, Yaël Braun-Pivet seems confident and gives the floor to the opposition deputies, in exchange, she hopes, for relative calm when Olivier Dussopt speaks. “The three motions must be submitted to the draw”, insists the socialist Valérie Rabault. Aurore Bergé, president of the Renaissance group, gets carried away in the face of recriminations from the left.
“We have already lost 40 minutes in the debate that the French are waiting for! So who, in the hemicycle, is doing the short scale to the far right? (…) You!”
Aurore Bergé, president of the Renaissance groupin the hemicycle
Olivier Dussopt tries again to express himself. “We are here to discussscreams the president of the Renaissance group. We had agreed that the minister could speak.” After several minutes of heckling, calm is gradually returning and the Minister can finally boast “justice reform” while “sold” and “liars” resound on the benches of Nupes at the address of the former socialist. “Taxing, taxing, taxing, this is your only project. Before being an opposition party, you are a tax party”replies Gabriel Attal, Minister of Public Accounts. “I have been dragging my spats here for a few years and frankly, all the great debates have their dose of tension”relativizes with franceinfo the boss of the PS, Olivier Faure.
Two hours after the opening of the debates, at 6:12 p.m., it is time to examine the motion of preliminary rejection tabled by the Nupes and which makes it possible to set aside, in the event of a vote, the text of the government. “The more you talk, the more you swell the ranks of opponents to this reform, you have the gift of unanimously against you”denounces the Rebellious Mathilde Panot, at the podium.
“These walls are not thick enough to protect you from the wrath outside.”
Mathilde Panot, leader of LFI deputiesin the assembly gallery
The two motions rejected without surprise
As expected, the Nupes and the RN announce that they will vote for this motion of rejection, and the majority against. Remains an unknown: the presence or not of LR deputies. They are finally there and let it be known that they will vote against. The motion is rejected by 292 votes against (243 votes for).
Three hours after the opening of the debates, the examination of the text has still not begun. It’s 7 p.m. It is the turn of the RN referendum motion to be discussed. “There is no majority to vote for this text (…) We suggest that you use the referendum”, launches the RN deputy, Sébastien Chenu, from the podium. His appeal will remain in vain. On the left side of the hemicycle, the benches of the Nupes have emptied. The fate of the referendum motion was decided in advance: it was massively rejected by 272 votes against (and 101 for).
On the side of the majority, this long sequence ends without bad surprise. “We were mobilized, I was not worried”, delivers a Renaissance setting to franceinfo. But opposition MPs are already preparing for the next battle. “There may be flaws” in the device of the majority, wants to believe Cyrielle Chatelain, the president of the environmental group. It is not far from 8 p.m. and the deputies will finally consider the substance of the text. They are preparing for a marathon. “We pitched our Quechua tent”, laughs MP RN Laure Lavalette. The next round will also be played on Tuesday in the street with the new mobilization day.