The government of Elisabeth Borne has planned a procedure which should enable it to prevent this controversial reform from getting bogged down in Parliament.
By Joelle Meskens
Lhe pension reform project, which plans to delay the retirement age from 62 to 64, was presented to the Council of Ministers on Monday. A race against time is now engaged by the executive to have the text adopted, while a second day of action by the unions (after a first show of force last Thursday) is already scheduled for January 31.
The government has provided a procedure that should allow it to avoid getting bogged down in Parliament. He has indeed opted for an accelerated procedure by deciding to pass the reform via a simple “amendment to the social security financing bill for 2023”. Technically, this way makes it possible to limit the debates in the National Assembly and the Senate to fifty days. If the text is not adopted within this period, it may be adopted by order. At any time, the government can also draw the famous article “49.3” of the Constitution which allows adoption without a vote in Parliament, but then exposes itself to motions of censure from the opposition.
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The main architects of the reform want to play humility and pedagogy. The text can be enriched, explain the main ministers concerned, for whom it is however excluded to reconsider the age measurement of 64 years. Emmanuel Macron, who will not be able to run again in 2027, wants to leave the mark of a reformer. But if he does not intend to give in, doubt remains about the possibility of obtaining a majority to vote for the text. In the own ranks of the (relative) presidential majority, some elected officials are questioning the fairness of the reform and could abstain or even vote against the text. And if the new leader of the Republicans, Eric Ciotti, has reached an agreement with the government, it is not said that the 62 elected right-wingers follow him as one man in the Assembly…
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