Two months after presenting the pension reform, Elisabeth Borne engaged the responsibility of her government to have the text adopted. A decision taken at the last moment by Emmanuel Macron who considered that “the financial and economic risks are too great” to attempt a vote on the text at the Palais-Bourbon.
Of the three scenarios so far selected this Thursday morning by the executive, it is the most divisive that has been chosen. Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne has engaged her government’s responsibility for pension reform. A decision taken a few minutes earlier only in the Council of Ministers before a speech by the head of government in the National Assembly. A look back at this significant day in more ways than one for French political and social life.
Several meetings at the Élysée before the final decision
Emmanuel Macron has multiplied the meetings around him at the Élysée in recent hours. After meeting this Wednesday evening with Élisabeth Borne and the Ministers of Labor Olivier Dussopt and Relations with Parliament Franck Riester, he spoke early this Thursday morning with the presidents of parliamentary groups and presidents of majority parties.
During this meeting, the president again noted that the ballot in the National Assembly was likely to be very tight, according to information collected by BFMTV. All the participants then advised to go to the vote of the reform, with the exception of the president of the National Assembly Yaël Braun-Pivet. At that time, according to one of his relatives, Emmanuel Macron still intended to go to the vote.
The reform adopted (unsurprisingly) in the Senate
Shortly after, the Senate unsurprisingly adopted the pension reform during the second reading of the bill this Thursday morning with 193 votes in favor and 114 against and 38 abstentions. Still, it is on the side of the Palais-Bourbon that the eyes were riveted, the government not having an absolute majority in the National Assembly.
New meeting at midday at the Élysée around Emmanuel Macron with several government figures such as Élisabeth Borne and Gérald Darmanin, again to decide on the strategy to follow in the National Assembly. But at the end of it, the decision whether or not to use Article 49.3 of the Constitution to have the pension reform adopted in the Assembly was still “not decided”, according to a participant in the meeting. .
However, fewer and fewer people present are defending the vote. In question: the uncertainty linked to the vote of the LR deputies. Thus, according to our information, Eric Ciotti informed the executive that according to his count, only 30 intended to vote for, and 25 against.
The preferred 49.3 hypothesis… then confirmed
If the decision was not yet made, Matignon prepared for it. Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne has indeed indicated that she will be a “fuse” in the event of recourse to 49.3 during this meeting. If the text were adopted with 49.3, the government effectively exposes itself to a motion of censure which could be adopted, which would cause its downfall. Initially reluctant to this idea, Elisabeth Borne would nevertheless have changed her mind during the morning, according to our information.
Finally, a third and final meeting was held at the presidential palace around the Head of State, with Élisabeth Borne, Olivier Dussopt and government spokesperson Olivier Véran. It was during this that the decision fell: the use of 49.3 to have the pension reform adopted in the Assembly will indeed take place. A constitutional device authorized by the Council of Ministers and triggered by Elisabeth Borne.
“My political interest would have been to go to the vote. Among you all, I am not the one who risks his place or his seat. But I consider that as things stand, the financial and economic risks are too great”, a said the president.
Electric atmosphere at the National Assembly
From the platform of the hemicycle of the National Assembly where she engaged the responsibility of her government, the Prime Minister assured that “we have given ourselves the means of discussion” on the pension reform.
At the same time, the deputies of Nupes sang the Marseillaise and booed Élisabeth Borne at the opening of the session in the Assembly, forcing the head of government to do it twice. They also held up signs “64 is no”, in reference to the decline in the legal retirement age provided for by the reform. A scene observed by Jean-Luc Mélenchon from the public gallery where he followed the speech of the Prime Minister.
Oppositions announce motions of censure
The president of the Republicans Éric Ciotti described as “failure” this recourse to this article of the Constitution. A “personal failure” even estimated the president of the deputies RN Marine Le Pen, targeting the President of the Republic and announcing at the same time the filing of a motion of censure.
A decision also taken by La France insoumise which denounces “an authoritarian turn of macronie” while the LIOT group threatens to also file a “transpartisan” motion of censure against the government if the latter does not withdraw the text.
The unions also reacted to this adoption without a vote of the pension reform, provided that the government does not fall by the vote of a motion of censure. For the secretary general of the CGT Philippe Martinez, this “passage in force” with the 49.3 “must find an answer to the height of this contempt of the people. The mobilization and the strikes must be amplified”.
The secretary general of the CFDT Laurent Berger also announced “new mobilizations” after the use of 49.3: “the political compromise has failed”.
A surprise demonstration at Concorde
Shortly after the use of 49.3 by the executive, many demonstrators gathered at the call of the Solidaires union at Place de la Concorde, not far from the National Assembly in Paris. According to the police, they are ready for 6000 people to gather on the spot. They were joined by several opposition figures, by demonstrators massed near the National Assembly and by a procession of more than 1,600 young people from the Place de la Sorbonne according to our colleagues from AFP.
While the Prime Minister is expected at 8 p.m. on TF1 this Thursday evening to explain this choice of the executive, the president assured that his “political interest would have been to go to the vote” but that “as it stands, the financial and economic risks are too great”.
