Elisabeth Borne specified, this Wednesday, at the end of a government seminar the menu of the executive for the months to come, marked by bills on immigration, justice, ecology in particular, without citing however pension reform. The Prime Minister, who was also the guest of France Inter this Thursday morning, returned in detail to the pension reform, not mentioned the day before, or the fight against inflation. 20 minutes make the point.
Unemployment insurance and budgets for the end of the year
As expected, the bill extending the current rules of unemployment insurance beyond November 1 will open the ball for the parliamentary session, after being presented in early September to the Council of Ministers. Among the other texts unveiled by the executive in September are the bill for the development of renewable energies – which notably contains a series of simplification measures – and the orientation and programming bill of the Ministry of the Interior (Lopmi), which provides an additional 15 billion euros in budget over five years.
“The following weeks will also be marked by the examination of the financial texts, the finance bill and the social security financing bill”, added Elisabeth Borne. These two ritual sites of the fall will be so many political tests for the government, deprived of an absolute majority in the Assembly.
Inflation side
Elisabeth Borne estimated Thursday that the peak of inflation should be passed during the year 2023. Asked about France Inter to find out if the peak of inflation had been exceeded, the Prime Minister replied that we could not yet affirm it. “It is rather good news that we have had lower inflation over the last month, but we consider that we should have passed the peak of inflation rather during the year 2023,” he said. she stated.
And what about pensions?
The Prime Minister did not mention Wednesday evening in the government’s projects the delicate and controversial pension reform. But it is “not abandoned” and its “gradual deployment” will be carried out “during the year 2023”, said government spokesman Olivier Véran, judging “fundamental to consult” upstream. “We want to reform work as a whole, including the question of pensions,” he said.
This Thursday morning, however, Elisabeth Borne said she wanted to “move forward” on the pension reform but “in consultation”, confirming that discussions were going to start on the subject after the launch of the National Council for Refoundation on September 8.
“We want to move forward but we are also in a process of consultation, listening, finding a way. We need to have these discussions with the employers’ and trade union organizations, and with Parliament, ”said the Prime Minister on France Inte. “It remains a very important issue” and “the discussions, they will begin after the National Council for Refoundation”, underlined the head of government.
The annual report of the Pensions Orientation Council, which will specify in particular the extent of the deficits of the pension system in the short and medium term, must be published on September 15.
Immigration, justice and energy-climate
The Prime Minister has drawn up a dense menu for 2023 which should make it possible to “engage in new key projects”, with the military programming law, a bill for the improvement of daily justice following the states general of justice, an energy-climate programming bill which will act on the “ecological planning” entrusted to it and will be broken down “sector by sector, territory by territory”
Other texts are planned on immigration, on full employment, on education for the start of the 2023 school year and on the Olympic and Paralympic Games hosted by France in 2024.
Serial consultations
The parliamentary session will be the occasion for three debates on Ukraine, energy policy and immigration. The president will also install on September 8 the National Council for Refoundation, which must bring together all the political, economic, social and associative forces, but which is already shunned by the opposition parties and several unions.
The government also intends to organize a consultation on the end of life, the outlines of which will be defined with the National Advisory Council on Ethics. He also intends to set up the cross-party commission requested by the President of the Republic, which must reflect on the evolution of institutions.