With his song Bad Day, Daniel Powter (since forgotten) could have addressed the government almost 20 years in advance. The latter indeed had a difficult day on Tuesday in the National Assembly during the examination of his “full employment” bill, which began on September 25. He in fact suffered the rejection of an article aimed at initiating a “public service for early childhood” and the anger of overseas elected officials accusing the executive of neocolonialism. We summarize it all for you.
The failure of the “early childhood public service”
This is a major disappointment for the government: an article included in the “full employment” bill, aimed at initiating a “public early childhood service”, was rejected on Tuesday in the Assembly. In particular, it planned to rework the governance of reception structures (crèches, childminders, daycare centers, etc.), by giving municipalities the status of organizing authority, in conjunction with the departments. Measures “so that we can finally begin to outline a real public service for early childhood”, defended the Minister of Solidarity and Families Aurore Bergé.
But the oppositions had several grievances and the left and the right defended deletion amendments. “This article does not create the public early childhood service,” lamented the communist Pierre Dharréville. Criticizing an “opportunistic” article, the socialist Jérôme Guedj pointed out “gaps” on the “lack of personnel” or “salary increases”. “This article ignores the means,” criticized MP LR Thibault Bazin, his group also believing that the text framed the prerogatives of the municipalities far too much.
As the hemicycle filled up and everyone counted the forces present, Aurore Bergé recalled government announcements of “200 million per year for the upgrading of personnel” and “6 billion” for early childhood “between 2023 and 2027 “. In vain. The deletion amendments were adopted (130 votes against 127, with the support of LR, LFI, RN, Communist and Liot deputies).
Obviously, this vote was also political. “It was as much a vote against the article as a vote against Aurore Bergé,” admits a deputy from the RN group. But the minister did not admit defeat as she assured: “I hope that we can come back and work on it again together. The only interest that should be ours should be that of our children.” However, according to a government source, the executive has not planned to resort to a new deliberation on the article. End of game then.
This failure was another disappointment, in the person of the National Union of Family Associations which tweeted a “What a disappointment” before calling for the article to be reinstated.
The anger of overseas elected officials
The article which provides for applying the measures of the bill by ordinance in the Overseas Territories has not gone down well with elected officials from Overseas Territories. Several deputies took turns denouncing “a lack of respect”. “I am committed to ensuring that the ordinances are prepared with overseas parliamentarians,” underlined the Minister of Labor Olivier Dussopt. “We don’t want to be associated, we want to vote,” retorted Emeline K/Bidi (Reunion).
“This deprives the overseas deputies of a serious decision,” denounced Frédéric Maillot (Réunion). “Debre said […] Once Creole, always Creole. This evening we see that it’s once a colonist, always a colonist,” he said. “I apologize. Honestly, the comments you made are unbearable,” replied the president of the Renaissance group Sylvain Maillard.