Some trade union centers are annoyed by the slowness of the debates in the National Assembly on pension reform. They would like the deputies to vote on the famous article 7 which concerns the decline in the legal age of departure to 64 years.
The debates on the pension reform resumed on Monday, February 13, in the National Assembly where the amendments are still examined in dribs and drabs. More than 15,000 remain on the table as the text goes to the Senate on Friday at midnight. A question arises: will the left finally accelerate to meet the demands of the unions?
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The centrals are stepping up the pressure and demanding a vote on article 7. This key article on raising the legal retirement age to 64 years. The boss of the CFDT, Laurent Berger goes so far as to qualify the obstruction of “bullshit” on RTL on Sunday. He’s talking about “dismal sight” to the Assembly which “has nothing to do with the dignity of the movement in the street”. “We want there to be a vote on Article 7”CGT boss Philippe Martinez said on BFMTV on Monday, so that “every deputy can express himself” on raising the retirement age from 62 to 64.
Refine the strategy over the course of the debates
Is this enough to convince La France insoumise to change its strategy? Because it is towards LFI and its thousands of amendments that all eyes are turned. Nothing sure to believe a rebellious strategist. “We continue to control the timing”, he explains. Just before the weekend, he confided that it was necessary to avoid setting foot in article 7. “The danger” for him, it is that the government obtains a majority, which would risk behind demotivating the demonstrators.
But not everyone, even in his group, is on the same line, even if some are a little lost, and want to refine the strategy over the course of the debates. The rest of the New People’s Ecological and Social Union (Nupes) pleads to move forward, recalling in passing that the majority disturbed them on Friday February 10 and refused to extend them over the weekend. For a deputy from the environmental group, if the demonstrations are going well, it is also because “anger is represented in the National Assembly”.
“It will hit hard on the bottom”
Left-wing senators are following these debates very closely and are in the starting blocks. They are preparing to debate the text in early March. Among them, a socialist of weight despairs of the ” hubbub, fury and noise “ of the Assembly: “I can’t wait for the text to arrive to work in a different climate.”
This socialist opposes the noise of the tablets that are banging the deputies in the hemicycle to the red carpet of the senators. The atmosphere will therefore be more subdued, but “it will hit hard on the bottom”, he says facing the majority on the right who intends to pass this text? There is no question of reaching 15,000 amendments, adds an environmental senator. The senatorial left wants to reach article 7. “We need to clarify things” supports another, have a real debate for, he says, “let’s know who is who”.