Will the deputies finally have time to debate on article 7 of the text on the pension reform? The answer is still totally uncertain, but a new step was taken on Wednesday evening in this direction. The Nupes has indeed decided to withdraw many amendments, with the stated aim of examining by the end of the week the decried article providing for the decline of the starting age to 64 years.
LFI withdrew “more than a thousand” amendments at the end of the evening and the Socialists “90% of theirs”, indicated a parliamentary source. “The objective is to vote, we hope as soon as possible, on this famous article 7”, explained PS deputy Philippe Brun, judging that there was “a possible majority in the hemicycle for vote against” the age measure which crystallizes the opposition to the reform. It must be said that the day before, the National Assembly rejected article 2 concerning the establishment of a senior index in companies, intended to encourage the employment of older employees.
At the end of the session on Wednesday at midnight, however, there were still nearly 11,000 amendments on the counter in total, while the examination of the text at first reading must end on Friday at midnight in the Assembly.
Debates around options for financing pensions
The debates on Wednesday lingered at length on the avenues for financing the left, presented as alternatives to age measurement. The Assembly notably rejected amendments from the Nupes (LFI, PS, EELV, PCF) asking “to restore and strengthen” the wealth tax or to increase the CSG on capital, in order to free up new resources. for pensions.
These amendments “allow a certain moment of truth”, quipped in the hemicycle the Minister of Public Accounts Gabriel Attal. “You finally acknowledged there was a funding problem after denying it for months.” “No one here has denied the deficit” to come, “what we dispute is your catastrophist vision”, retorted the ecologist deputy Marie-Charlotte Garin.
The RN files a motion of censure
The majority has also repeatedly targeted Marine Le Pen’s RN group, which filed a motion of censure on Wednesday. “It’s your right” to file a motion of censure, said Gabriel Attal, but “you, there is no need to censure yourselves, you say nothing, you are silent, you have no proposal” .
At the end of the session, the deputies also adopted an amendment from the Renaissance group aimed at harmonizing the social regime applicable to contractual termination benefits, in order to “remove the incentive” to resort to it before the legal retirement age.
The Nupes has also several times requested an extension of the debates beyond the limit scheduled for Friday at midnight, which makes a vote on Article 7 uncertain. thus called the Insoumis Louis Boyard.