Minority, the socialist, communist and ecological groups want in particular to limit the number of amendments tabled in order to be able to examine article 7, which provides for the decline in the legal age of retirement to 64 years.
After a heated examination in the National Assembly, the pension reform arrives in the Senate. Discussed in committee since Tuesday, the text will be debated in session in the hemicycle from Thursday March 2. If the left, a minority, intends to thwart the government’s plans, it approaches this sequence with a different strategy than that adopted by the Nupes in the National Assembly. In form too, the debates at the Luxembourg Palace will differ from what the French were able to observe for two weeks at the Palais-Bourbon. “On the left, the major difference in the Senate compared to the National Assembly is that La France insoumise is not there”, recalls Damien Lecomte, doctor of political science.
>> Follow the debates on the pension reform in the Senate in our direct
However, it was the deputies La France insoumise who most strongly opposed the text in the National Assembly. They assumed a blocking strategy by filing and maintaining several thousand amendments, then by multiplying the number of speeches. This frontal opposition also gave rise to several incidents, such as when Thomas Portes tweeted a photo in which he put his foot on a ball bearing the image of Olivier Dussopt, then when Aurélien Saintoul called the Minister of Labor“assassin”, remarks for which he later apologized.
No “lessons to receive” from La France insoumise
In the traditionally more subdued atmosphere of the Senate, leftist groups want to avoid this strategy of sound and fury. “We want a peaceful atmosphere. (…) We don’t want the debates to turn into a spectacle”, told the newspaper THE Echoes (article reserved for subscribers) Patrick Kanner, boss of the 64 socialist senators. “This corresponds to the composition and the image that the Senate wants to give, as an assembly of moderation, beyond partisan divisions”, Damien Lecomte analysis.
For the basic strategy, the ecologists, the socialists and the communists also want to distinguish themselves from La France insoumise, whose political council has “solemnly” called last week “the senators of the Nupes” To “do everything to prevent the adoption of retirement at 64 in the Senate”. This little sentence could annoy in the ranks of the senatorial left. “We have no lessons to take from anyone, especially not from other political forces,” sweeps Eliane Assassi, president of the communist group, which has 15 parliamentarians.
The left wants to arrive at article 7 on the postponement of the legal age
Within the upper house, which has 348 parliamentarians, the three groups have nevertheless coordinated to move forward together against the defenders of the reform. First during a videoconference organized on Tuesday February 21 to tune their violins, then by collectively signing a referendum motion, as revealed Le FigaroTuesday. This motion, which will be tabled “Friday morning” by socialists “in the name of the three groups on the left” in the Senate, aims to submit a text debated in Parliament to a referendum, said Patrick Kanner during a press conference on Wednesday. It has very little chance of succeeding at the end of its examination, but has the merit of allowing the left to be heard. “This is what the French expect from us, that we stand up”, underlines the socialist Laurence Rossignol.
“There is a united trade union front, he calls a united parliamentary front of the left.”
Laurence Rossignol, PS senator for Oiseat franceinfo
The senatorial left, on the other hand, does not want to engage in parliamentary obstruction, a tactic that environmental, socialist and communist groups have criticized La France insoumise in the National Assembly. “The number of amendments that we table will exceed 3,000, but this will be the maximum”, advance Guillaume Gontard, the president of the environmental group in the Senate, which has 12 senators. “These amendments mean something, because we are proposing real political options.” However, the position is difficult to maintain. “There is a difficult balance to strike between being an opposition that genuinely opposes and being a constructive and republican opposition. It is a crest line for them”, anticipates Damien Lecomte.
An objective has been clearly stated: to arrive at least at the examination of article 7 of the text, which provides for the postponement of the legal retirement age to 64, while the deputies have not reached the 3, much to the chagrin of the unions. “We will arrive at this article 7 and we will fight so that it is not voted on”, assures Guillaume Gontard. The examination of this famous article could take place on Tuesday March 7, the date of the next day of national mobilization against the reform. “We would like to be able to arrive that day at article 7 and have a substantive debate, to be able to inject our proposals by way of amendments”, defends Eliane Assassi. This day promises to be crucial for opponents of the reform project. “There will likely be social mobilization, discussion and voting,” details Guillaume Gontard.
And the senators on the left intend to rely on the street to make their voices heard. “We consider that we are legitimized by opinion polls, which show 75% of French people hostile to the reform, by the hundreds of thousands of demonstrators, by trade union unity. All of this gives us our roadmap” , believes Laurence Rossignol.
A limited field of action
Inside the Senate, the examination of the text is also an opportunity for the left to appear as the main opposition force. In this hemicycle, the National Rally does not have elected officials, unlike the National Assembly, where its group of 88 deputies claims the status of first opponent to the majority. Despite this notable absence, the three left-wing groups have to deal with an upper house dominated by the right and the Les Républicains (LR) group. In the Assembly, the deputies of the party are divided on the line to adopt in the face of the reform, but the 145 senators LR display a united front and favorable to the executive which complicates the plans of the left.
“In the Senate, the left doesn’t have a lot of leeway.”
Damien Lecomte, Doctor of Political Scienceat franceinfo
If socialist, communist and environmentalist groups are determined “to do everything so that the text is not adopted”, as Laurence Rossignol wishes, their power appears limited. And their room for maneuver could be further reduced if the President of the Senate, Gérard Larcher (LR), made use of article 38 of the internal regulations. (PDF document). This provision makes it possible to shorten the debates on an amendment or an article from the moment when “at least two speakers of opposite opinion intervened”. Enough to feed a legislative arsenal “against the opposition”, that could be used by a senatorial right “in osmosis” with the executive, tackle Laurence Rossignol. “The Senate must not become a simple relay of the government, we must take the time for debate”, added Guillaume Gontard at a press conference, addressing a “caution” to the right-wing senatorial majority which, according to him, could become what “relay”.
“The Government has a very substantial armory to wring the arm of Parliament.”
Laurence Rossignol, PS senator for Oiseat franceinfo
The use of article 38 would shorten debates already constrained in time by article 47-1 of the Constitution, initiated by Elisabeth Borne before the start of the parliamentary examination. It could also allow the examination of the text to be completed and voted on before Sunday March 12 at midnight, the date of the end of the discussions in the Senate. A scenario feared by the left, which wants to avoid the adoption of the reform project and has “the intention to take all the time necessary to express oneself on the text”, continues Laurence Rossignol. The left rejects in advance any reproach of obstruction, anticipating the possibility that the text will not be fully examined by March 12. “We can’t be blamed for it”, launched Patrick Kanner on Wednesday. “The first obstruction is that of the government”, he asserted.
The minority left in a mixed parity committee
The fate of the reform would not, however, be settled. At the end of the debates in the Senate, the text must go to the joint joint committee (CMP). A legislative body little known to the general public, the CMP brings together, in the event of disagreement between the two chambers of Parliament, seven deputies and seven senators, responsible for agreeing on a common version. Its composition depends on the size of the political groups. With only five votes, the left will also be a minority against the alliance of the right and the government.
Remains to the opposition an argument that goes beyond the parliamentary circuit. “How can we implement a reform like this when it has not been adopted by the National Assembly, elected by direct universal suffrage?”, wonders Eliane Assassi. For the communist senator, the parliamentarians who will make up the joint joint committee will be confronted “to a sacred democratic question”.