This is the other decision expected this Friday, the one that crystallizes the hopes of the unions and the demonstrators. The Constitutional Council must decide on the validity of a referendum of shared initiative (RIP) blocking the retirement age at 62 years. A second RIP with the same objective, but more “secure”, according to its authors, was also filed Thursday evening. The Elders have one month to decide on the latter. We take stock.
What do the RIPs filed by the left say?
On March 20, a first RIP was submitted to the Constitutional Council by 252 parliamentarians from the left and from Liot, made up of center deputies. The bill carried by this RIP number 1 aims “to affirm that the legal retirement age cannot be set beyond 62 years”, writes Constitutional Council website. The Sages will decide on his future this Friday at 6 p.m.
Anticipating a “no”, the deputies of the left submitted a second RIP Thursday, “aiming to prohibit a legal retirement age above 62 years”. “It is the same text” as the first RIP, supplemented by a second article “which creates an element of reform: tax revenue linked to capital resources to secure the financing of pay-as-you-go pensions”. The idea? Overcome “the possible weakness” of the first request, explained the president of the socialist group Patrick Kanner. Verdict within a month.
What should the Constitutional Council verify?
After receiving a RIP, the institution must verify several points, in particular that the bill complies with certain conditions laid down in the Constitution. It must therefore relate to “the organization of public authorities”, or “reforms relating to economic, social or environmental policy”. The government has sent its written “observations” to the Council: according to it, RIP number 1 does not carry any “reform”. The authors of the bill, contesting these arguments, have, as a precaution, filed the second RIP which explicitly creates, they underline, “an element of reform”.
Another condition: the RIP cannot “aim to repeal a legislative provision promulgated less than a year ago”. This modality is respected: the government awaits the decision of the Elders on the conformity of the pension reform, this Friday, in order to promulgate the law. However, the two RIPs were submitted before that date. The Elders must also verify that no provision of this text is contrary to the Constitution.
What happens in the event of a green light?
In the event of a green light for the RIP, the nine-month collection of the 4.8 million necessary citizens’ supporters – one tenth of the voters – would begin. “This is a figure that does not seem impossible to achieve in the case of pensions, but it remains disproportionate. Especially when we observe the mechanisms abroad: in Italy, 500,000 signatures are necessary ”, recalled at the end of March to the Parisian Lauréline Fontaine, professor of public law at the Sorbonne. According to an Odoxa poll published Thursday in Le Figaro9 to 18 million French people would sign for the holding of this referendum.
However, even if elected officials obtain these signatures, there is no guarantee that this RIP will hold: if the government decides to put the examination of the bill on the agenda in the National Assembly and the Senate within six months, the referendum procedure stops. And this, despite the 4.8 million votes in favor of his outfit that could be collected.