The left is still looking for the best way to counter the text defended by the RN

While the National Rally will defend the repeal of the pension reform in the Assembly at the end of October, France Insoumise wants to submit its own bill at the end of November against raising the legal retirement age to 64.

The date of October 31 is circled in the diaries of left-wing deputies, because it is synonymous with headaches. It is the day when the RN will submit to the Assembly its bill to repeal the pension reform. How to avoid the trap set by the National Rally? How to avoid giving a political victory to the extreme right when retirement at 64 remains very unpopular?

The left is embarrassed, between hostility to voting for an RN text and the temptation to seize the slightest opportunity to reject retirement at 64. “It’s complicated”, “We still haven’t found the right solution,” lament left-wing elected officials. This practical case of pensions is giving the New Popular Front cold sweats. “I am opposed to voting for anything that comes from the RN,” hammers a socialist, when the head of the Communist Party Fabien Roussel explains that it is necessary “be consistent, and do everything to ensure that the pension reform is repealed”, therefore not excluding voting for the RN proposal.

The PCF deputies will debate this on Thursday, September 19, during their parliamentary days. Still searching for the best strategy, the environmentalists have not yet decided on a collective position either. “The discussion is open”, slips a green MP who assures us: “We will decide before October 31.”

The rebels want to get around the obstacle by submitting their own bill for repeal. Éric Coquerel, the LFI president of the Finance Committee in the Assembly, announced this on Sunday, September 15, on BFM. The rebels will use their own parliamentary niche, the day they have control over the agenda, at the end of November, to vote for the repeal of the pension reform. “It’s an interesting hypothesis,” we greet the PS group, because this proposal could then be taken up by the left in the Senate, unlike that of the RN which does not have a group there. But some are perplexed about the timetable, because “the LFI niche arrives one month after the RN niche!”. Hence this other idea that the left is thinking about: attacking retirement at 64 by making amendments to the social security budget.

The financing of social security will begin to be examined in committee in the Assembly during October, therefore before the examination of the RN text on the 31st. “Laying the first milestone is important,” says a socialist, however aware that an amendment in committee risks having “less strength” in the opinion that a bill defended in the hemicycle.