Faced with growing opposition to her pension reform, Élisabeth Borne explained Thursday evening on France 2 on the meaning of her project, which she did not describe as “fair” as she had said so far. And for good reason: the government was criticized for having used this term at the time of the presentation of the project while there will remain disparities in the duration of contributions and that those who started working younger will have to contribute longer to the system. The situation of some women was also highlighted.
A 49.3 is not considered
Elisabeth Borne rather insisted on the “effort” required to convince the French. While the pressure from the street is strong and a majority in the National Assembly on the text is not acquired, the Prime Minister declared that she “does not envisage the hypothesis” of a recourse to the 49.3 to have his reform adopted, which notably pushes back the retirement age from 62 to 64 years. Difficult however to say the opposite nevertheless whereas the text arrives Monday in the hemicycle. The government and its majority would emerge “politically weakened” from recourse to 49.3.
“I am looking for compromises on this text as on all those that I present to Parliament” replied on France 2 the Prime Minister, while the government has already resorted to 49.3 ten times for the adoption of budgetary texts.
About 20,000 amendments, including nearly 13,000 from LFI, were tabled for the review of the reform, AFP learned from parliamentary sources. Marine Le Pen, leader of the RN deputies, who filed more than 200, accused the left alliance Nupes of “obstructing” and “allowing the government to pass the reform (…) without a vote as parliamentary procedure might permit.
The Minister of Economy, Bruno Le Maire, meanwhile, said he was “convinced” that there will be enough votes to vote for the text, while admitting that a “majority is built, this is never given in advance. All eyes are on Les Républicains, divided on the reform and whose support for the text would make it possible not to go through 49.3.
Sanctions
Elisabeth Borne reiterated the “indispensable” side of the reform “to save the pension system”, even if “it is not easy to ask the French to work gradually longer”.
Regarding the work of seniors, a crucial aspect of the reform, Elisabeth Borne said she was in favor of “sanctions” once morest companies that have “bad practices” in the employment of seniors. On the subject of the employment index for seniors that the government wants to put in place, Elisabeth Brtne “thinks that we can go further (…) by saying that the companies whose index shows that they do not do not have good practices with regard to seniors, must implement an action plan which will obviously be negotiated within the company”. “And if they don’t, or if there are no effects to correct bad practices, then there might be sanctions,” she added.
Edouard Philippe comes out of his silence
Before being questioned for 35 minutes by journalist Caroline Roux on the program “L’Evénement”, Elisabeth Borne received the support of Edouard Philippe, leader of the allied party Horizons, who announced his support “without ambiguity for the project . Accused of not supporting the executive enough, this supporter of a postponement of the starting age to 65, 66 or even 67 years old, sees his group sow confusion, some deputies threatening to vote once morest or abstain.
At the forefront of this reform, the Prime Minister’s confidence rating has reached a low since her appointment at 23% (-4 points), according to an Elabe poll carried out on Tuesday and Wednesday. After a record mobilization on Tuesday, with between 1.2 and 2.7 million people in the street, which will be followed by two new days of action next week, the government said it “heard” and “understood” the anger of French.
But the head of government also tightened the screw by saying on Sunday that the postponement to 64, which crystallizes the discontent, was “no longer negotiable”. This stiffening exposes to possible blockages in the country, which 60% (+3 points in one week) of the French “would understand”, according to an Elabe poll published on Wednesday, while 71% remain opposed to the reform.
Berger (CFDT) calls to “amplify” the mobilization on February 7
We must “amplify” the mobilization once morest the pension reform during the day of action on February 7, judged Thursday evening the leader of the CFDT Laurent Berger, who regretted the absence of “empathy” expressed by the First Minister Elisabeth Borne on France 2. Reacting hotly following an interview during which the Prime Minister returned to the reform measures, Laurent Berger regretted that we had “not heard of work”. However, “it’s work that we should have talked regarding this evening to show a minimum of empathy”, he regretted, adding: “we have the impression that there is not at the moment a social movement in this country.
“People want us to talk tonight regarding their work, regarding taking into account what they express,” he insisted, recalling the two days of action on January 19 and 31, this last date having aroused the “biggest” mobilization “for 30 years”.
During the next day decided by the inter-union, Tuesday, February 7, “we must continue the mobilization” of January 19 and 31 and “we must amplify it”, insisted the union leader. As for the following day, Saturday 11, it will offer “the possibility of coming to demonstrate, including for workers, workers who do not necessarily come during the week, including with their families”, to “show that there is a real discontent and real mobilization,” he continued. He welcomed Ms Borne’s announcement that financial sanctions might be applied to companies that do not act in favor of the employment of seniors. “I give him the point,” he said. But it is the postponement of the legal age to 64 that makes “this reform is unfair”, he insisted.
“When will the government, Ms. Borne, hear this call from the world of work (saying) this reform we do not want? he wondered.
The reform is “unfair and brutal”, added the leader of FO, Frédéric Souillot, also questioned in the context of the debate which followed the intervention of the Prime Minister.
AFP
