After three months of crisis, all eyes are on Friday towards the Constitutional Council. In the National Assembly, elected officials from all sides wait with a certain feverishness for the decisions of the Elders.
“The Constitutional Council may revoke all or part of it. We know it and we will have to take note“, slips, cautious, boss of the Horizons group Laurent Marcangeli. Pro and anti-pension reform are impatiently awaiting this day, and the word is weak.
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“Finding a bit of social peace”
After three months of political and social crisis, all eyes are on Friday, April 14, towards the Constitutional Council, which must say whether it considers the government text which provides for the postponement of the legal age to 64 to be constitutional. The deputies hold their breath: all the scenarios are on the table, hence the caution within the majority. Others hope to turn the page, like the head of the LRs at the assembly Olivier Marleix: “I expect the Constitutional Council to state the law, and if need be, that it will help to restore a little social peace in this country, to appease people’s minds, that the Constitutional Council give a little grain to grind to dialogue.”
On the left, another decision is awaited: that on the referendum of shared initiative, which could thwart the reform. The RIP procedure, filed by 252 parliamentarians, must be declared admissible or not by the Elders. And in case of validation of the reform by the Council, the deputies of the left put a lot of hope in this procedure, like the socialist Arthur Delaporte. “This is obviously not the end. We will remain mobilized, no matter what. French women and men will bitterly remember this forced passage and this brutalization of both public debate and the opinion of the majority of French people.“, he assures. “While bearing in mind that what one law has done, another law can undo it, And we already have this in mind, because it is not because this law will have been validated by the Constitutional Council that it will be fairer tomorrow“, adds his colleague, Christine Pirès Beaune.
“A way to continue to lead the battle”
The Nupes is considering, for its part, to meet again as soon as the Constitutional Council decides to continue, regardless of the result, its campaign against the reform. “The RIP is the spare wheel and it would be a way to continue to lead the battle against pension reform“, slips the Insoumis Eric Coquerel. Like him, the communist Pierre Dharréville judges that the procedure has, at least, the merit of maintaining the pressure: “We tried to use the levers that made it possible to find a political solution to the crisis. The President of the Republic is stubborn, so the referendum is still a good way to try to put him face to face with this reality that he does not want to see.“
Fixing the age of departure at 62 in law is the objective of the procedure. But it is long and complicated. And Jean-Philippe Tanguy, of the National Rally, does not really believe in it. “I don’t think that the fact that the RIP opens is a solution to the crisis. I do not want to make the French believe that it is a solution at hand”decides the deputy of the Somme.
To succeed, the RIP must be supported by four and a half million French people in the next nine months. Nine more months of social tension, worries Les Républicains MP Philippe Gosselin, who believes that “Any element is likely to rekindle the embers among some of those who believe in this RIP. There could be arguments to remobilize.” On the side of the majority, we prefer not to comment too much: behind the scenes, we admit to fearing an outbreak of violence if the Elders close the door to this procedure.