The senators, mainly on the right, completed on Tuesday February 28 the examination in committee of the very controversial pension reform. Several amendments to the bill have been adopted, in particular in favor of mothers and the employment of seniors. The senators will now meet on Thursday afternoon for the kick-off of the debates in the hemicycle.
Discussions will end no later than Sunday, March 12 at midnight. The text will then be sent to a joint joint committee, which brings together seven deputies and seven senators.
Deprived of a vote of the National Assembly by the obstruction of the deputies of La France insoumise, the executive counts on the Senate to confer democratic legitimacy on a reform which two thirds of the French (66%) do not want, d ‘after an Odoxa survey. The next day of mobilization against this reform, March 7, also promises to be very popular, driven in particular by a call for a renewable strike from all the SNCF unions.
In the meantime, the debates in the Senate, renowned for its hushed climate, could contrast with the strong tensions experienced by the National Assembly. The amendments approved Tuesday in committee will have to be voted on again in session, as required by the rule applicable to budgetary texts. Several have been retained.
One, considered essential by the right, aims to grant “surcharge” to mothers who have a full career. The senators also propose a new CDI formula, exempt from certain social security contributions, to facilitate the hiring of seniors. The executive has multiplied in recent days the gestures of openness towards the right, the majority in the Senate. “I wish the Senate could enrich” the text, said President Emmanuel Macron on February 25 in the spans of the Agricultural Show.
The right “not in one-upmanship”
“We will listen to the Senate’s proposals and we will find a way together”, had abounded Elisabeth Borne. The head of government also said she was ready on Tuesday in the magazine Elleto study “bonuses” wages for women “before the third child”a new hand extended to the Republicans (LR).
The president of the LR senators, Bruno Retailleau, said Monday, in an interview with Agence France-Presse, that his group “will not be in one-upmanship”. In the National Assembly, the government had a lot to do with the LR deputies, in particular Aurélien Pradié, since dismissed from his position as number two of the Republicans.
This does not prevent the Lot deputy from remaining very virulent against his party, which he accused, on Tuesday on France Inter, of being “a government accomplice” in the pension debate. The senatorial right can hardly change its mind by not voting for a reform that it has been calling for for several years. Mr. Retailleau has, moreover, announced to see the Prime Minister again on Wednesday with Gérard Larcher, the President (LR) of the Senate.
The right and the centrists recognize “differences” between them on certain subjects, such as long careers or special pension schemes, but are confident in their ability to “overcome them”.
With nearly a hundred senators, the left intends to make its opposition heard. The three groups – PS, CRCE with a communist and environmentalist majority – will present their strategy together on Wednesday. “We want the twenty articles of the law to be dealt with”said socialist leader Patrick Kanner, in an interview with the newspaper The echoes, Sunday.