In the Social Affairs Committee, the debate on the pension reform lasted three days but did not allow the more than 5,000 amendments to be dealt with. The discussions end this Wednesday February 1 before the arrival in the hemicycle next Monday.
At the Parliamentary Committee on Social Affairs, the speeches are linked but the deputies are advancing in step. After three days of discussions, the debates on the pension reform preceding those of the National Assembly end this Wednesday, February 1, at 8 p.m., and it goes without saying that the more than 5,000 amendments under consideration have not been treated. A slow cruising speed and a sign of the obstruction strategy of the deputies of the Nupes, according to the repeated accusations of the elected representatives of the National Rally resolutely opposed to the pension reform and those of the majority who defend the text body and soul. Socialist Arthur Delaporte has asked for “additional days” of the examination of the text, given the incompatibility between the calendar and the work to be done, but the commission will not have much rabe, the text being expected on Monday February 6 at the National Assembly for a political sequence that promises to be stormy.
The debate on pension reform has often turned into a rat race at the committee with interposed attacks or criticisms, not always justified, between the right and the left. Most often, it was misunderstanding and the maintenance of each other’s positions that dominated, rendering the committee’s exchanges sterile. During the hours of debate, some texts were still adopted, such as article 2 of the pension reform project, which concerns the “senior index”. If the general rapporteur Stéphanie Rist (Renaissance) welcomed on January 31 a “brick [supplémentaire] in improving the employment of seniors”. Opposition from left and right have deplored a measure that is useless because it is insufficient.
During the three days of debates, several outbursts caught the attention by their substance or by their form. The tone was set from the first day by the communist Sébastien Jumel who addressed the majority: “Don’t think we’re going to let the French take it in the face, and purr like cats on big red armchairs. No, we are going to bring the anger back into the committee, into the hemicycle”. For their part, the RN deputies accused the members of the Nupes of being the “useful idiots” of the majority a few hours before the end of the session.
The continuation of the examination of the pension reform is to follow in the second part made available to LCP viewers and Internet users via the channel’s Twitter feed.
Calendar of the review of the reform in the Assembly
- From January 30 to February 1, 2023: examination of the text by the Social Affairs Committee
- From February 6 to February 20, 2023: examination of the text in session – unless adopted in committee
- From February 17: examination of the text by the Senate in first reading
- March 4, 2023: examination of the text in a joint committee (a delegation of deputies and senators)
- March 26: on this date, in the absence of an agreement, the government may request that the debates be stopped: the text is indeed inserted in the draft amending budget of the Secu, which limits the debates in Parliament to fifty days in total.