The vote on this amendment carried by the Freedoms and Territories group was very close. The executive opposed it.
New setback for the presidential majority. This Tuesday, the National Assembly voted against the government’s opinion on an additional increase of 500 million euros for retirement pensions, as part of the examination of the amended draft budget for 2022.
Led by the Liberties and Territories group (LIOT), amendment 194 aims to ask “a revaluation of pensions taking into account the real level of inflation“, while the deputies behind this change are alarmed by a drop in purchasing power for retirees. So far, the executive has increased pensions by 5.1% – 1.1% in January and 4% in July -, a level lower than inflation, estimated over the year at 5.5%, recall the elected. “0.4% is missing, the additional cost for 6 months from July to December 2022 is estimated at 500 million euros for public finances“, underlines the text, which therefore calls for an increase in credits to fill this gap.
The elected officials thus wishedsend a signal to the state“, specifying that their estimate remains uncertain. However, it is not certain that this modification, contested by the executive, will be validated by the senators, who will take over the text once the Assembly has completed its work on it.
SEE ALSO – Purchasing power: the deputies vote the revaluation of 4% of pensions and social benefits
Nupes support and LR division
The vote on this amendment by the independent group LIOT was won by 186 votes to 181, with the left immediately celebrating a “nice victory“. “Against the advice of the government, we have just pulled off a revaluation of the retirement pensions of civil servants to take account of the real level of inflation in 2022“, rejoiced the ecologist Karim Ben Cheikh, on Twitter. “Unreasonable, given the need to restore the good health of our public finances and to practice the serious budget”, regretted for his part the elected (Renaissance) Constance Le Grip.
The amendment was supported by several political groups, including the RN, LFI, PS, Ecologists, and the radical left. The supporters of this modification were also able to count on the support of a dissident, on the Modem side, Sandrine Josso, who voted for the proposal of the LIOT elected officials. In addition, the LR group was divided: nine members voted for, one against and four abstained.
Since the beginning of the work, the National Assembly has been the scene of several setbacks for the majority, put in difficulty by the oppositions. This was thus the case on the aid for households heating with oil, or even on the health bill, voted definitively on Tuesday. Despite his unfavorable opinion, the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, agreed that in view of the rise in inflation, “there would most likely be another pension increase in January 2023“.
SEE ALSO – Salaries, pensions, social benefits… Olivier Dussopt defends the purchasing power law