“We fell out of our chair”, is indignant Julien Bayou, national secretary Europe-Ecology-Les-Verts Wednesday on franceinfo, concerning the additional revaluation of 500 million euros for retirement pensions approved by the deputies before being rejected during a second deliberation requested by the government. The ecologist denounces the methods and arrangements of the majority which “offer to compensate only half” inflation which “gallop”.
franceinfo: Was it a coup de theater that took place at the National Assembly last night?
Julien Bayou: We had agreed to increase the pension boost by 500 million euros. It was a matter of sticking to real inflation. It had been accepted by the Assembly. We were used to these second votes, when the government loses it makes us vote again, but as we had been promised a new method, consultation, we fell out of our chair at 2:30 or 3 a.m. when the government said “no, not possible, we vote again”. At that time he had arranged for a larger majority and so it was thrown out in utter confusion. Concretely, retirees with a small pension have gone to bed hoping that the prices they face will be somewhat compensated and they have woken up to the fact that this is not the case.
The government says it made compromises during the examination of this text, is this not the case?
Inflation gallops and the government proposes to compensate only half. Only small adjustments were made and when it was not planned we had to vote again. A government that arrives with a project and only accepts what it wants is not re-parliamentarization. This does not take into account the balances in the country. The government is sitting on a relative majority and I regret that on structural issues, on wages, rent, fuel prices, we do not have a lasting answer. In reality, we have small boosts and I understand that for many people it’s good to take or better than nothing, but it increases less quickly than inflation and it does not resolve structural issues. We will have the same problems in the fall.
Do you think there is some form of majority clarification including the Republicans?
The government can, in difficult cases, count on the Republicans, who negotiate who knows what. We have a form of real false majority with the Republicans, this is the second lesson after the fact that the Nupes is united and in opposition. The third lesson is that the National Front is almost useless. In the end, they left. Maybe it was too late for them?