If the joint committee finds an agreement, the government is counting on the LR deputies to obtain a majority in the Assembly. But some right-wing elected officials say they are still very undecided, promising a tight vote.
“It’s Russian roulette or it’s fat Bertha.” This is how Senator Bruno Retailleau summed up on Sunday March 12 the Cornelian choice facing Elisabeth Borne. Invited on the set of CNews, the boss of the group Les Républicains au Sénat, a supporter of pension reform, mentioned in hollow the two options available to the Prime Minister: risk a very tight vote in the Assembly or use section 49.3 to remove any uncertainty.
In the event of an agreement within the joint joint committee, organized on Wednesday, the text of the reform will indeed be expected at the National Assembly on Thursday at 3 p.m. But the doubt remains on the behavior of the deputies The Republicans and the executive took out the calculator with feverishness. The government hopes to count on at least forty right-wing votes to obtain the majority and thus avoid a forced passage with a 49.3. “I am sure that there is a majority in Parliament to vote for this text which is necessary for our country. (…) Everyone will take their responsibilities”said Elisabeth Borne in The Parisiannot hesitating to put pressure on the LR group.
“It seems to me that the account is not there”
According to information collected by franceinfo from right-wing deputies, the vote could prove to be very close. Sign of a certain malaise, the elected Republicans have not filled up either in the Senate. Six of them voted against and 18 abstained. For their part, the LR deputies are still numerous to say they are undecided in this last straight line of the parliamentary debate. “I’m going to wait for the result of the joint joint commission to make up my mind”confides Vincent Rolland, deputy of Savoie. “I’m waiting for the text of the CMP to fix my vote: abstention or against!”adds Emmanuel Maquet, elected representative of the Somme.
“I will look carefully at the last text ‘blocked’ by the government, but it seems to me that the account is not there”adds another LR deputy. “I am very divided and rather not favorable”, says a parliamentarian from the Republicans, who anticipates the use of section 49.3 anyway. Some are also waiting to know more precisely the choice of their colleagues. “Given the state of the troops, I am more on a position of abstention to date”confides another elected official on condition of anonymity.
“The more of us who vote ‘for’, within the group, the more I will be ready to vote for it.”
An LR deputyat franceinfo
Everyone makes their accounts, a few days before the final decision. According to several sources inside the Republicans, between 30 and 35 deputies plan to vote for the text, around fifteen could oppose it, and around ten would lean towards abstention. But the figures vary from one interlocutor to another. “We have at least 20 deputies ready to vote against, and we could even approach 25assures one of them. Some say they are undecided, when their choice is made, but they are perhaps afraid of being yelled at if they ever say they are against it. The deputy of the Rhône, Alexandre Vincendet, favorable to the text, nuance: “The count means nothing, in my opinion: it can move until the last moment. But I think that the reform can pass.”
“It’s a matter of consistency”
A few days before the vote, the LR group therefore remains divided. Several deputies confirm their intention to play the slingers and not to vote for the text, like Julien Dive and Ian Boucard, two relatives of Aurélien Pradié, the former number 2 of the party, who has been calling for measures for several weeks additional benefits for long careers.
But they are also several to choose to support the reform without trembling, like Michèle Tabarot, Philippe Juvin, Emilie Bonnivard, Alexandre Vincendet or Eric Pauget. “We can’t say for twenty years that we have to work longer and vote the opposite. It’s a question of consistency and credibility”insists MP Jean-Louis Thiériot.
These parliamentarians therefore follow the position of Olivier Marleix, the president of the LR group in the Assembly, and Eric Ciotti, the boss of the party. “Gaullism, against all odds, is the care of a single requirement: the higher interest of the nation. Today, this commands us to vote for this reform”estimates the deputy of the Alpes-Maritimes in The Sunday newspaper.
“Faced with the crises that assail us, let’s not let up on irresponsibility. Let’s stay the course with courage and consistency.”
Eric Ciotti, president of the Republicans partyin “The Sunday Journal”
As Olivier Véran assured on Sunday, the government will try to avoid drawing the weapon of 49.3, which could stir up social protest. Given the level “unpublished” demonstrations against the reform, “seems incredible and dangerous to me”And this “would be a form of democratic vice”, warned Laurent Berger, the general secretary of the CFDT. The scenario could also present another risk for the government, with the filing of a cross-partisan motion of censure, in the event of 49.3.