Hard blow for opponents of pension reform. After a day of parliamentary guerrilla warfare, this Wednesday, May 31 in the Assembly’s social affairs committee, the bill of the independent group Liot (Liberties, Independents, Overseas, Territories), which aimed to repeal the postponement of the age, has been emptied of its substance.
The 70 deputies of the commission thus rejected article 1 of the bill, which provided for the postponement of the legal age of departure to 64 years. The deletion of the article was voted by 4 votes, 38 deputies having voted for and 34 against. This first ballot was narrowly won by the present majority, thanks in particular to the votes of the LR group which added up – only two right-wing deputies out of eight joined their votes to those of the other oppositions to defend the repeal of the 64 years.
Consequently, the Liot group will be forced to reintroduce its measure by an amendment before June 8, the date on which its bill will be debated in the hemicycle of the National Assembly. However, the Macronist president of the lower house, Yaël Braun-Pivet, will be able to brandish the ax of financial admissibility herself, and thus prevent a vote by the deputies. “I will take my responsibilities”, Yaël Braun-Pivet, member of Renaissance, assured Tuesday after being criticized in his own camp for not having blocked earlier.
The left, LFI at the forefront, counterattacked by tabling more than 2,000 amendments to article 2 of Liot’s bill, in the hope of preventing the debates from coming to an end. The aim being that the entire PPL will not be voted on, so that its initial version – with article 1 – will be considered on June 8. “If we don’t have time to discuss the whole text, it will come back to its initial state during the session, there may be an interest in doing that”, explained the deputy LFI Alexis Corbière. At midday, after a meeting of the committee’s bureau, its president, Fadila Khattabi (Renaissance), refused to examine these amendments. Protesting against this decision, the Nupes deputies left the committee room. The president of the LFI group Mathilde Panot denounced a “new anti-democratic coup by macronie”.
Update : at 4:18 p.m., with the vote on the bill.