2023-05-04 00:27:22
“We are very reasonably optimistic” on a green light, had conceded shortly before this decision the Socialists, when the rebellious did not even believe in it anymore. This Wednesday, the Constitutional Council rejected the second request for a referendum of shared initiative (RIP) made by the left.
Unsurprisingly, the Elders judged that the proposal for a referendum of shared initiative (RIP) carried by some 250 deputies and senators did not meet the required criteria. The Council considered in particular that the request for a referendum “does not relate, within the meaning of Article 11 of the Constitution, to a reform relating to social policy”, which is the main point that it had to verify.
Saying “to take note” of this rejection, the socialist and related group estimates, in a press release issued after the announcement of the Constitutional Council, that the “parliamentary battle is not over”. The latter are betting more on June 8, the day of examination by the National Assembly of a bill aimed at repealing the pension reform.
Filed by the independent group Liot (Liberties, Independents, Overseas, Territories) as part of its reserved day (“niche”), the text worries the presidential camp. A favorable vote would only be the beginning of a parliamentary journey, but the left plans to ask in such a case for the suspension of the reform.
“Social progress will not come from the sound of pans”
For its part, the presidential majority said it was serene pending the decision of the Elders on Wednesday. “If I reason in law, it does not pass”, this request for a referendum of shared initiative, dropped a framework, hammering that the reform is “necessary to save the system by distribution”.
His “democratic path” is over, Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne said again on Tuesday, who has set a new roadmap with Emmanuel Macron and wants to continue to “act”. “Social progress will not come from the noise of the pans”, she scolded, in response to the ecologist Cyrielle Chatelain, in the always boiling hemicycle of the Palais Bourbon.
No question of “turning the page”, repeats the left alliance. The second RIP was initiated in extremis on April 13 by some 250 left-wing and independent deputies and senators. The next day, the Constitutional Council, under the leadership of Laurent Fabius, had validated most of the pension reform, including the postponement of the legal age to 64, and rejected a first request for RIP.
The law had been promulgated in stride by Emmanuel Macron, but the battle continued. Still united after 12 days of mobilizations, the inter-union organized a “combative” May 1st which brought together 800,000 people according to the police (2.3 million according to the CGT), but was marked by violence.
Expected actions
Actions are expected this Wednesday on the occasion of the new decision of the Constitutional Council. Thus in Bordeaux, the CGT called for a demonstration at 6 p.m. in front of the tribunal de grande instance to “express this determination to seize all the republican and democratic tools” in order to obtain the withdrawal of the reform.
In the detail of the RIP version 2, the parliamentarians want by a popular consultation “to prohibit a legal retirement age higher than 62 years” – that is what they had already proposed in the first request challenged by the guardians of the Constitution . To increase their chances of success, these elected officials led by Patrick Kanner, boss of the Socialist senators, have completed their proposal by planning to also request by referendum a “significant contribution of capital income” to the financing of pensions.
The whole point is that the Constitutional Council considers this evolution of taxation as a real “reform”, we note on the left. “We are skeptical: it’s such a restrictive exercise, Sarkozy left us a poisoned gift” by introducing this RIP procedure into the Basic Law in 2008, plagues a socialist. No referendum followed, despite several attempts.
The unions have made an appointment on June 6 for a new day of action, to “be heard” by the deputies upstream.
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