“It’s not a defeat, but it’s just like. It’s the worst scenario for us”: two days after the ax of the Constitutional Council, this socialist deputy of the New Popular Ecologist and Social Union still does not digest not the decision of the Sages, and its share of bad news. In particular the rejection of the famous RIP, the referendum of shared initiative, which the rue de Montpensier considered null and void. The text provided that the legal retirement age could not be set beyond 62 years. “We should have anticipated… We didn’t understand it too late, sighs the deputy with the rose. If I sum up: we got double-banned (sic) in the Assembly, by 49.3 and by the tweet of our adored pensioner (Editor’s note: Jean-Luc Mélenchon), and we take a fairly basic lesson in law. It is imperative that the Nupes get out of its internal squabbles and start working on the substance and the method. Act 2 of the Nupes, it’s good to talk about it, but we have to act now.”
“We simmer the dish”
In short, on the left nothing is going well. A new RIP has been filed, which will be studied by the Constitutional Council on May 3, but few are those who hope for something. Alexis Corbière, deputy of rebellious France, calls however not to let go: “The RIP is only a string on which we pull, being aware of its limits: the president is not obliged to hold a referendum. But the RIP is nine months of campaigning on the ground, during which the country becomes politicized. We simmer the dish, we raise the temperature and the pressure weighs on Macron, again and again.”
So what to do? There too, there again, the left is drowning in its thousand and one contradictions. In the Socialist Party, we still believe that a “Chiraquian epiphany” can go to meet Emmanuel Macron, that is to say that the latter does not implement the reform as his old predecessor Jacques had done. Chirac in 2006 with the first job contract (CPE). Olivier Faure, boss of the old pink house, even called for continuing “legislative harassment”. The same people, who nevertheless castigated the strategy of the rebellious in the Assembly, are they eager to follow in their footsteps now?
Turning the page, towards 2027
The left has no more weapons than its words and its outcry, now that the Constitutional Council has validated the text. And the little end-of-battle music begins to resonate in the ranks, in short, a fatigue from the struggle, which the left fears the most. Should we move on to another battle? Even Manuel Bompard, chief lieutenant of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, gave the feeling of wanting to move on in his interview in the columns of the Sunday newspaper ; to already turn the “retirement” page to prepare for the only deadline that can change the situation: the presidential election of 2027. What Marine Le Pen also made clear, affirming that it “will be up to (the people) to prepare the alternation which will come back to this reform”. See you in four years.
Until then, Manuel Bompard does not hide his strategy: the fight in the National Assembly has its limits, “to win the battle we will have to go even further.” Calls him to a large agora of leftist and trade union political forces. But who will listen to him? Fabien Roussel has already distanced himself from Nupes, which he considers “outdated”, and environmentalists now only have an interest in the new organization of their political family and the Europeans. Bompard can count on the Socialists, but they are divided into two very distinct chapels, one of which abhors the idea of siding with the rebellious.
Harden the movement, the rebellious wish
“We must develop the political struggle and the strike”, insists Corbière, with the faith of the coalman. However, the gatherings, as numerous as they have been in recent months, are dwindling over time. The inter-union also loose ballast, and prefers to let the school holidays pass to call for a large rally on May 1. May 1st is tomorrow but tomorrow is a long way off. Laurent Berger, the boss of the CFDT, even called to “break the house”.
If the rebellious heard it, they did not understand it well, they who call for the movement to harden in the street. “What does Berger really want by saying that? That we continue to demonstrate in all kindness while being beaten up by the police, as we have been doing for two months and with the result that we know? Or that we break really the shack?” asks a devotee of Mélenchon. The left swears that it is advancing, but it is still trying to figure out where to go.