According to François Patriat, Emmanuel Macron “cannot back down” on his pension reform project while the inter-union calls for “putting France to a halt” on March 7.
“The mobilization will be important on Tuesday but, ‘France at a standstill’, I don’t believe in it”declares François Patriat, president of the Renaissance group in the Senate, on franceinfo Monday, March 6. “When I hear opponents, especially people from LFI, say that we have to bring the economy to its knees, it shocks me enormously” believes the senator from Côte-d’Or. For him, Emmanuel Macron “can not back down” on his pension reform project. “It would be a bad blow for the finances of France”, he assures. As for the amendments that add expenses, such as the one voted on Monday by the senatorial right on the creation of a “senior” CDI, he believes that they “will not be taken into account” during the joint committee which will bring together deputies and senators on this text.
franceinfo: Do you dread seeing “France at a standstill”?
Francois Patriat: What I believe is that the mobilization will be important on Tuesday, that the participants, the demonstrators will be numerous, that the disturbances will be important too, but “France at a standstill”, I do not believe in it. As much as I think we must respect the right to strike, hear what the demonstrators have to say, but our role as parliamentarians is to oppose any desire to block the country.
When I hear opponents, especially people from LFI, say that we have to bring the economy to its knees, it shocks me enormously. Does that mean that all workers in this country would lose their wages? Does that mean that the whole social system would be jeopardized? Are these people capable of jeopardizing everything that has made France today attractive again, that it is reindustrialising, that it is creating jobs? Is that what they want? I think that this kind of statements is likely to reverse the trend of diehards.
Emmanuel Macron, whom you met recently, can he back down if France is blocked?
I believe that to back down on this text today would be a bad blow for France’s finances. Because when we say that there will be 13.5 billion deficit in 2030, that means 13.5 billion per year and 150 billion additional deficit in ten years. Then, it would mean burdening the pensions of our children, our grandchildren and that they would have a trickle pension later. So we can’t go back today.
“I met Emmanuel Macron for a long time at the Agricultural Show. I felt he was determined. The French, of course, are not in favor of the idea of working two more years. It is a reform that does not She is not popular, but she is all the more deserving because she is courageous because she takes into account the general interest and not local selfishness.
Patriat, president of the Renaissance group in the Senateon franceinfo
By dint of adding amendments, such as the “senior” CDI voted by the senatorial right, are the savings provided for by the pension reform project not likely to melt?
So we have to be clear about this. When the government says that the act must be balanced, that means that these amendments will not be taken into account. I think that the one on the “senior” CDI, which the government opposed and against which the opposition and I voted, is one of the amendments on which we will not be able to give in during the joint joint committee. I want to ask the Republicans how they can tell us that they are more rigorous than us and, at the same time, introduce spendthrift amendments that they had never presented when they tabled a text of legislation each year for retirement at 65?