In the National Assembly,
Suits and ties match the dark faces who wear them. For their traditional weekly press conference, this Tuesday noon at the National Assembly, the deputies of the Liot group (Freedoms, independence, Overseas and Territories) do not really look cheerful. Imperturbable, including when an elected Communist bends over backwards, before their eyes, to recover a forgotten file without disturbing the cameras. It is that for several months now, this small motley group of 21 parliamentarians seems on a mission to bring down the government’s pension reform. New episode Thursday in the hemicycle, with a bill to abolish the decline in the legal age to 64 years.
A bill that makes pschitt?
“We ask the government for one simple thing: to accept democracy. We are democrats. We will see if there is a majority to push back the legal age”, breathes Charles de Courson, elected from the Marne since 1993, who has become a figure of political protest. The rapporteur of the repeal text, however, has the head of the bad days. He knows that his bill could well make pschitt even before arriving in the hemicycle. Last week, the Social Affairs Committee voted to delete Article 1, aimed at repealing the decline in the legal age. Liot has tried to reinstate the measure by amendment, but he no longer has the cards in hand.
Yaël Braun-Pivet, the President of the National Assembly, should indeed rely on Article 40 of the Constitution * to judge the amendment “inadmissible” financially and thus avoid the presidential camp a perilous vote in the Assembly . A sleight of hand that annoys Bertrand Pancher and his colleagues. “You have added the institutional crisis to the social crisis. You had to appease, you added fuel to the fire. Bad strategy. When will you finally appease the country by letting the deputies pass the law? “, annoys this afternoon at the podium the president of the Liot group, expressly targeting Elisabeth Borne. “You bring the art of paradox to its climax,” replies the interested party. The Prime Minister recalls that many elected Liot supported Valérie Pécresse in the last presidential election, who defended a retirement… at 65 years old.
“Their opposition is masquerade and tartufferie”
Indeed, nothing predestined this group bringing together centrists, socialist dissidents, ultra-marines and Corsican autonomists, to become the nightmare of the executive. Until now unknown to the general public, Liot comes out of the shadows during the debates in the Assembly on the pension reform. “Nothing was right, neither in substance nor in form. They tried to roll us in the flour, with the 1,200 euros for all, the employment of seniors, the 43 annuities, then the 49-3… At one point, that annoyed us, ”admits Paul Molac, ex- disappointed macronist, elected from Morbihan. After the use of 49-3 by Elisabeth Borne, the smallest group at the Bourbon Palace even went so far as to table a motion of censure, which failed to bring down the government on March 21 – with nine votes. “It was the first time that I had signed one”, adds Paul Molac, “but the authoritarianism, the exceptional procedures used, all of that left a detestable impression”.
For weeks, the elected Liot, carried by the duo Bertrand Pancher – Charles de Courson, pounded the executive, denouncing “an unfair reform”. Their offensive style, sharp with the usual temperance, surprised and greatly annoyed the macronists. “Their opposition is masquerade and tartufferie. They fought for retirement at 65 in the last presidential election. To follow the opinion of the majority of the opinion by electoral interest, it is the base of populism , creaks Sylvain Maillard, deputy Renaissance of Paris. “Charles de Courson sits on the commitments he has had for thirty years. If he is at war against Emmanuel Macron, it may be time to question his role as a deputy, ”abounds Prisca Thevenot, elected Renaissance from Hauts-de-Seine.
“We will perhaps fall back into anonymity”
The criticisms are swept away by the interested parties. “Gun carrier attacks are hot air. That such a small group with know-how makes the government stumble, I understand that it annoys, but that’s the way it is, ”replies Paul Molac. But this strategy of radical opposition, like the rapprochement in this sequence with La France insoumise or the CGT, is not necessarily to everyone’s taste within Liot. “There was a vote in committee, so we can no longer say that the Assembly did not vote on pensions…”, blows the deputy Liot des Vosges, Christophe Naegelen. “I have lived in China, I have been in Russia, in Belarus, I do not believe that conveying the democratic criticisms made by LFI is fair. Everything that is excessive is insignificant, so we should not be,” he adds, contrary to the speeches of his allies.
With the possible end of the retirement sequence, once the Liot parliamentary niche has passed, the future of the small group now arises. “Do we stay in this position of opposition or are we pragmatic and constructive, that is to say we can also discuss with the majority”, questions Christophe Naegelen. “We will perhaps fall back into anonymity after Thursday, but we will continue to do our job, and we will talk about us from time to time”, smiles Paul Molac. Maybe even for the Europeans next year, where a Liot list is currently in preparation.
*This article stipulates that any parliamentary bill must not create a new financial burden for the State.