“Each day spent is a day taken…”, breathes an elected representative of the majority. Between “parliamentary obstruction” and incidents of session, the examination of bill on the pensions continues very difficult this week with the national Assembly. Among the macronists, we count the days remaining before the transmission of the text to the Senate, Friday evening, and the end of the parliamentary debates, scheduled by March 26. In this climate of tension and strong social mobilization, the presidential camp has often opted for “minimum service”, not really inclined to defend unpopular measures, such as raising the retirement age to 64 years.
“There is nothing to gain from this reform”
Not so long ago, however, members of the government relied on education to try to convince the French of the benefits of the reform. But over the weeks and the arguments deployed, opposition to the text has continued to climb in opinion polls, complicating the task of elected Macronists in the constituency. “Returns from the field are mixed… As we have chosen to only produce a balanced budget text, it is more complicated to defend. Go sell to people that you have to work harder to make up the deficit. There is nothing to gain on this file, we are facing a wall, ”sighs a Horizons MP, close to Edouard Philippe. “It is not necessarily a fair reform but a reform that tends to less injustice. We should rather have presented it like that from the start, ”adds an elected Macronist who, like several of her colleagues, implicitly criticizes the government’s arguments for the first few weeks.
“This is not the ideal reform, because our system is in deficit. And it is not easy to explain because people ask us about their specific case: What about my retirement? And that of my mother, and those of my daughters? », Says Caroline Abadie. The deputy Renaissance of Isère says however to have done the job, but without going so far as to organize public meetings. “If I make one, it will be rotten for me… But I did my minimum service by distributing leaflets on the Vienna market, the discussions were interesting, even with the opponents. We have every interest in explaining as much as possible what is in the text,” she says.
“If you organize a public meeting, you are messed up”
Since the beginning of the year, a few ministers have held meetings to praise the bill, but evenings of this type have not been popular among macronists. “It’s impossible to hold a public meeting on pensions, it would be a mess,” sweeps Erwan Balanant, MoDem deputy from Finistère. A Renaissance MP makes the same observation, referring to the flammable social context. “Given the excitement of a number of people at the moment, if you hold a public meeting, you are instantly messed up. You have thirty guys coming into the room with megaphones, sirens and smoke bombs, and sabotaging your evening. This framework of the presidential party evokes in particular the power cuts claimed by the CGT against several offices of elected Renaissance officials favorable to the text.
The MP Horizons already quoted evokes the security instructions issued by the public authorities, in particular on the day of the demonstrations. “We were contacted by our prefects to warn us of the measures put in place around the permanence and homes and to tell us not to hesitate to raise any problem,” she said. The great “mobilization” that Emmanuel Macron dreamed of on January 11 to “explain to the French very concretely” the issues of the text therefore did not take place. Gossips will say that the head of state himself has been rather discreet.