In full examination of one of the most sensitive measures of the pension reform project, including the end of several special schemes, Senator Victorin Lurel invited his colleagues to look into their scheme affiliated with an autonomous social security fund.
“We are not credible.” This Saturday, while the Senate immersed itself in the examination of one of the most sensitive measures of the pension reform project, including the end of several special regimes, the senator and former Minister of Overseas Victorin Lurel s It is taken from the senators themselves, affiliated to an independent fund of social security.
“We are going to propose the abolition of five special regimes. The French are watching us, do you think we are going to keep our credibility?” he asked, before assuring: “I am not provocative.”
The senator from Guadeloupe, belonging to the socialist group and member of the finance committee, explained that the senators’ regime is an “autonomous” and not a “special” regime, but that in the minds of the French “it’s the same thing “.
“How are you going to keep credibility to say: ‘You are privileged, profiteers, you have no criteria of arduousness… Our work is difficult for us, because we work at night, and we need a diet autonomous and special'”, he launched to his colleagues, adding: “How do you want the French to believe us?”
“A demagogic proposal”
The left defended in vain a motion to refer back to committee, then amendments to delete Article 1 of the government bill, devoted to the gradual extinction of the five special regimes (electricity and gas industries, RATP, Banque de France, clerks and employees of notaries, members of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council).
The left has largely occupied the field since the start of the debates on Thursday, while the right, which dominates the upper house and supports the reform, is more discreet – “laziness” in the ranks, pin the environmentalists.
“You want to obstruct, we don’t”, released the leader of senators LR Bruno Retailleau on Saturday.
Bruno Retailleau also wants these special schemes to be abolished for current employees, but his proposal will be examined later. The government is once morest, and its amendment might be rejected, for lack of support from the centrists.
For the left, the end of special regimes is “an ideological and demagogic proposal”, which will not generate financial gain.
“C’est ‘peanuts'”
“It’s ‘peanuts'”, launched the communist senator Pierre Laurent, on the same line as Victor Lurel. This suppression “pulls down” everyone.
The general rapporteur Elisabeth Doineau (Centrist Union) retorted: the trades concerned “are they as painful yesterday as today?”. According to her, “we must open our eyes, we are asking for efforts from all French people, whoever they are”.
“The senatorial majority is consistent in its positions”, in favor of a “convergence” with the general scheme, also argued René-Paul Savary, LR rapporteur for the old age branch, wondering regarding the last three special schemes which are not affected by the government’s project (sailors, the Paris Opera and the Comédie Française).
In these three areas, the “physical conditions” require maintenance, replied the Minister of Labor Olivier Dussopt. But for the others, “working conditions” no longer justify a difference in treatment.
Firmly but calmly – unlike the debates in the National Assembly – the left in the Senate has engaged in a long battle over this 1st article. Some 300 amendments remained on the menu for the day on Saturday or even Sunday. According to an old trucker, “it’s going to disgorge all weekend”. The pressure is mounting, in any case, in the street and in businesses before the mobilization of March 7. Tuesday’s mobilization promises to be massive. According to police sources, the intelligence services expect between 1.1 and 1.4 million demonstrators throughout France.
