The group’s president Bertrand Pancher is confident about the future of this text aimed at repealing the postponement of the legal retirement age. Before its presentation on June 8, the deputy puts pressure on the presidential camp, which could choose a strategy of obstruction to prevent the adoption of the bill.
A burst of optimism coupled with a blow of pressure towards the executive. Guest of Sud Radio, deputy Bertrand Pancher defends the bill of the Liot group – of which he is the president – consisting in repealing the postponement of the legal retirement age and organizing a social conference.
“Victory is really possible”, wants to believe the elected representative of the Meuse, before the presentation of this text on June 8.
If the votes of the left and the extreme right are already acquired, the rest of the equation will be played out on the benches of the right. Bertrand Pancher made his calculations concerning the Les Républicains (LR) group, made up of 62 deputies.
“There are about 25 of them, according to my words, who are completely hostile to the law”, he confides, also stressing that parliamentarians from the majority could “abstain”.
A vote different from that of the motion of censure
A detail that is very important since only a simple majority is required for the adoption of a bill. Consequently, abstention can change the fate of the text by lowering the threshold of necessary votes.
This was not the case for the motion of censure presented by the Liot group on March 20, after the use of 49.3 on pension reform by Elisabeth Borne. It was a question of pronouncing “for or against the overthrow of the government”, recalls Bertrand Pancher. The abstention was therefore worth supporting the executive, but “the ball almost passed very close to the ear”, underlines the elected official. The fate of the Prime Minister was in fact decided by 9 votes.
If the Liot group can reasonably be optimistic with regard to the number of deputies who could support its text, it does not have the assurance that it will go to the vote. Time will be counted. At midnight, the parliamentary niche of the Liot deputies will end and they will no longer have their hands on the agenda. Consequently, the presidential troops could be tempted to play the obstruction in order to prevent the adoption of the bill.
“We are not going to operate like this for four years”
A scenario anticipated by Bertrand Pancher. Who wrote to the President of the Republic to put pressure on him, warning that “the use of delaying maneuvers, obstruction, or exception would fuel the fire of anger and aggravate the democratic crisis”.
The deputy sees in his text a way of appeasement in the face of the current “chaos” in the country, characterized, according to him, by an Emmanuel Macron who “does not go out without the police being around to try to calm everything the world.”
“We are not going to operate like this for four years,” he urges.
However, a possible adoption in the National Assembly would not mark the end of the legislative process. The senators would also have to decide. However, the right-wing majority of the Luxembourg Palace openly supports the copy of the executive. Difficult in this case to consider a favorable vote.
“Political earthquake”
There too, Bertrand Pancher sends messages, distinguishing the deputies defined as “representatives of the people”, from the senators whom he describes as “representatives of the mayors”, because of their election by the electors and not the citizens. Therefore, the only vote of the Lower House would be enough to trigger a “political earthquake”, according to him.
“Parliament would mainly decide on a new device and President Macron would not take it into account?”, He asks as if to point out the dangers of this eventuality. “But what country are we in? It’s not a dictatorship, but a democracy.”
