Some Renaissance deputies do not appreciate the criticism of several elected officials from their camp who are considering not voting to raise the retirement age. “They have to assume a little”, we judge within the presidential majority.
Annoyance begins to be felt on the benches of Renaissance. While around fifteen Macronist deputies could not vote for the pension reform and let it be known, their colleagues misunderstand their prejudices and reproach them more and more strongly.
“We’re fed up with the choir of mourners,” one of the group’s executives snapped at BFMTV.com. “We were elected on a program, we respect it and that’s it.”
“We have to think carefully about our actions”
For ten days, several elected representatives of the presidential majority have come out of the woods to express their fear of certain elements of the reform proposed by the government of Elisabeth Borne, in particular the decline in the legal age of departure to 64 years.
The debate which begins this Monday, February 6 in the hemicycle of the National Assembly promises to be crucial for these parliamentarians who condition their vote on better taking into account the situation of women or long careers.
If the government displays its serenity – Élisabeth Borne thus assured the deputies that “the majority would be united” to vote for the bill – several deputies do not like these outings.
“I recall that we had been elected on an even more ambitious project of retirement at 65 and that we are at a turning point in the five-year term”, retorts the elected official of Essonne Robin Reda. “We have to think carefully about our actions.”
“We all fell out of the closet a bit”
The critics pass all the less well as the majority is not used to dealing with the desire for independence of its members. With the exception of the asylum-immigration law defended in 2018 by Gérard Collomb, the Minister of the Interior at the time, the majority has never been crossed by strong tensions.
Faced with the defeat of several left-wing deputies during the last legislative elections and a more marked majority on the right than in 2017, many are also those within the group who did not see the dissension coming.
“We all fell out of the cabinet a bit when we saw that Barbara Pompili did not want to vote for the text. We may not agree but we say it to each other”, explains a macronie lieutenant.
The exit of the former minister of Emmanuel Macron, who explained to BFMTV.com in mid-January that he did not wish to vote for the reform “at this stage”, cast a chill within the macronie.
“We have the freedom to speak”
If the ex-ecologist was the first to come out of the woods, other Renaissance deputies followed suit like Patrick Vignal, followed by an elected Modem and 2 Horizons deputies. Some of the elected Macronists who are doubtful about the reform are also trying to influence the content of the reform by organizing themselves on a Whatsapp loop entitled “socially yours”.
“We have the freedom to speak,” said Jean-Marc Zulesi, chairman of the Sustainable Development Commission.
“It shows that we have a group that lives and shows that we are not Playmobil”, continues the deputy. “It’s good news.”
Before qualifying his remarks. “I do not deny that we must continue to work on the text. But it can be counterproductive to do it publicly and get you out of negotiations with the government”, still assures this elected official from Bouches-du-Rhône.
“In the group, no one listens to us”
Among the deputies who have publicly expressed their reluctance, we nevertheless assume to have spoken in the media, even if it means angering the majority.
“We cannot exist in the hemicycle”, denounces one of them. “We only have 20 days of debate and we will be banned from tabling our amendments. Obviously we will be heard in the media. In the group, no one is listening to us.”
“Emmanuel Macron should be happy not to have only pump shiners,” he adds.
Other deputies have chosen another approach to make their disapproval of the reform known more discreetly: to be very discreet on the ground. Public meetings to defend the text have not been so numerous, which causes gnashing of teeth internally. “I say to my colleagues who are afraid of the reform that they will be associated with it,” says Senator Renaissance Xavier Iacovelli. “So they have to assume a little.”
But in the macronie, few are those to really believe that these deputies will go to the end of their approach by pointing the finger at the diversity of profiles.
“You have one that only represents itself, a small Whatsapp loop without a lot of people on it and one or two that will have a swimming pool at the time of the vote”, suggests an executive of the group.
“Well, it’s not really going to change much in the end for the vote,” he hopes. “I’m a bit worried about the union suite.” The majority obviously prefer to keep an eye on the street as two new inter-union mobilizations will take place this Tuesday February 7 and Saturday February 11.
