“Five minutes flat”. The leader of the LFI group in the Assembly Mathilde Panot and Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne obviously did not have much to say to each other. The meeting between the two political leaders did not last a minute longer. Not very surprising, since it was a question of talking about the pension reform. The boss of the government will continue the consultation exercise until Monday, ending with the Socialists.
“The Prime Minister confirmed to me that she still wanted to postpone the retirement age and, for us, this is a non-negotiable condition, a basis for discussion that we do not accept”, declared Mathilde Panot to the press leaving Matignon. “I told the Prime Minister that our group had nothing to negotiate with this government on these issues. And so we invite all those who are fighting against this pension reform to come and walk with us this Sunday, October 16 at 2 p.m., Place de la Nation,” she continued.
For Le Pen, an “absolute total opposition”
The left-wing parties, several NGOs and trade unionists will march in Paris on Sunday in a “march against high prices and climate inaction”, before a day of strikes and interprofessional demonstrations on Tuesday at the call of several unions. The leader of the rebellious deputies spoke of “a strike movement which is spreading oil on the issue of wage increases”. “Let’s not make false oppositions between people. I don’t agree with the government when it says that what is happening to millions of French people today with their cars is the fault of the strikers (of the refineries, editor’s note), that’s wrong, ”a- she added.
A little later, it was Marine Le Pen who was received in turn. We tell you right away, the discussion does not seem to have progressed further. On leaving, she recalled her “absolutely total opposition to the fundamental pension reform” and the solutions “to preserve our pension system, the problem of productivity which is very bad in France compared to its neighbors, the problem the activity rate of young people (…), the birth rate”.
The MP for Pas-de-Calais also expressed her “concern about the timetable” for this reform that the government wants to see adopted at “the end of winter” when “the moment is difficult for the French and may -be even more difficult in the coming weeks” in terms of purchasing power, she said. Elisabeth Borne began a series of meetings with parliamentary officials on Thursday.