After midnight, a motion of censure tabled by the National Rally (RN) was examined in the presence of the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne.
Debates remained largely unfinished. The first reading of the pension reform ended without a vote in an electric atmosphere, Friday, February 17 in the National Assembly, without arriving at article 7 of the reform and its essential measure on the postponement of the legal age of 62 at age 64. At midnight, the deadline, the President of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, pronounced the end of the debates, constrained in time by the legislative procedure chosen by the executive. “We are now coming to the end of the debates (…) It is therefore with respect for the Constitution that our debates must now come to an end. (…) Ladies and gentlemen, rebellious deputies, you insulted me for a fortnight but nobody cracked, and we are there, in front of you, for the reform”, declared at the end of the session the Minister of Labour, Olivier Dussopt.
Shortly before 10 p.m., there were still just over 7,000 amendments to be considered on the bill. “We need time to debate (…) and we need several days for that”, pleaded the deputy La France insoumise (LFI) Ugo Bernalicis, like many deputies of Nupes demanding an extension of the examination of the text. “The government is forcing its way by using article 47-1 of the Constitution. It refuses to continue the debates”, castigated the president of the LFI group in the Assembly, Mathilde Panot. In the evening, the environmental group denounced to AFP “a strategic failure” of La France insoumise on the review of the reform, illustrating differences within the left-wing coalition. Thursday evening, Jean-Luc Mélenchon had judged “incomprehensible” the withdrawal of amendments on the left and called on Members not to “precipitate” to item 7.
“We give a deplorable image of democracy”regretted Charles de Courson (independent group Liot). “Our text will go to the Senate without the national representation having voted (…). We risk a subject of unconstitutionality, the sincerity of the debates is in question”, also declared the deputy Les Républicains Aurélien Pradié, asking Friday evening for details on the device of “long careers”. Friday evening, the debates stumbled among other things on this device and the number of years, 43 or 44, that the people concerned will have to contribute. MPs have criticized the government’s vagueness on this issue.
The project goes to the Senate
After midnight, a motion of censure tabled by the National Rally (RN) will be examined in the presence of the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne. She has almost no chance of being adopted. The text on pensions will then go to the Senate.
The deputies had 20 days for this first reading of the reform, between committee and hemicycle. This situation of interruption, Friday evening, is unprecedented, leaving many parliamentarians on their hunger. These strict deadlines result from the choice by the government to go through an amending budget for Social Security. After a break in parliamentary work for a week, senators will have 15 days to debate the reform, until March 12 at midnight. They will be seized in committee from February 28, then in the hemicycle on March 2.
The reform project can then on paper continue to make its way through Parliament. At the beginning of the week of March 13, seven deputies and seven senators will meet to try to reach an agreement on the main measures of the reform, the usual principle of joint joint commissions. If agreed, the text will still have to be adopted definitively by the National Assembly and the Senate.