Nicolas Sarkozy’s former social adviser believes that the president is playing for time with negotiations, pending the decision of the Constitutional Council, scheduled for April 14 at the end of the afternoon.
Raymond Soubie has a keen eye on the pension reform championed by the government. The former social adviser to Nicolas Sarkozy (2007-2010) spoke about this highly contested bill at the microphone of BFMTV, returning in passing to Emmanuel Macron’s strategy.
According to him, the President of the Republic is “in the spirit of saving time”. With a view in particular to April 14, the date on which the Constitutional Council must render its decision on the conformity of the text. If the Elders have “not invalidated the entire bill”, the Head of State is “required to promulgate it, he has no choice”, underlines Raymond Soubie.
“Trade unions are very intelligent”
While waiting for these two weeks, the executive could therefore play the clock. Elisabeth Borne will receive the trade unions next week. It will probably be Wednesday. Matignon did not indicate the agenda, nevertheless specifying that the unions “could address all the subjects they wish”.
The centrals intend to address the subject of the moment. “We will go,” warned Laurent Berger, number 1 of the CFDT, while threatening to leave the meeting if there is no question of postponing the legal retirement age to 64. But, the president “said that he would not move”, on this measure, recalls Raymond Soubli. So a dead end.
However, “trade unions are very intelligent”, he continues. “Naturally, they don’t want to let him save time so as to have nothing in return on the pensions”. However, the advisor expects the end of this showdown to be disappointed.
“I see a way out of the crisis that will make several major players unhappy,” he predicts.
