Faced with deputies on Tuesday afternoon for his general policy declaration, François Bayrou revealed his roadmap. The Prime Minister notably resolved to return to Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform, without proclaiming the suspension requested by the PS, but by announcing a three-month renegotiation “conclave” “without any taboo” on the departure to 64 years old. Not enough to convince a good part of the left: rebellious deputies, environmentalists and communists have tabled a motion of censure which will be examined on Thursday. The Socialist Party will vote for it if it does not obtain “a clear answer” on its demand to submit the question of pensions to Parliament in any case, Olivier Faure said.
Information to remember
⇒ Pensions: Matignon “convinced” that the social partners will reach an agreement
⇒ Budget 2025: the government plans “more than 30 billion” euros in savings
⇒ Jordan Bardella asks François Bayrou to reframe François Rebsamen
Pensions: Matignon “convinced” that the social partners will reach an agreement
François Bayrou is “convinced” that the social partners will reach an agreement on pensions, and therefore that there will be a law to vote at the end as demanded by the socialists, it was declared this Wednesday morning in the Prime Minister’s entourage. “At the end of the work of the conclave, we are convinced that they will succeed and therefore there will be a need to legislate,” we told Matignon. The socialists, however, demanded, as the price for their non-censorship of the government, that Parliament be seized even in the event of failure of social negotiations.
The N.1 of the CGT, Sophie Binet, declared this morning that the first meeting initially planned for Friday in Matignon “would not take place”. “This meeting will not take place on Friday, and we do not have a new date,” the unionist declared on RTL. In his general policy declaration on Tuesday, the Prime Minister had “chosen to put this subject (pensions) back into work with the social partners” and announced that he would bring together “as of Friday” the “representatives of each organization”.
“The Minister of Labor called me around 8 a.m. to warn me and tell me that we would receive an invitation letter on Friday,” another union leader told AFP, who said he was “not unhappy”. “I was surprised to learn live yesterday that there would be a meeting and that we had to be available 48 hours later,” he continued. “Where, when, how, what format, what means…? We don’t know anything!”, tackled another manager.
“It’s exclusively a question of agenda,” clarified Labor Minister Catherine Vautrin, interviewed on BFMTV. “Friday morning, the Prime Minister will already write to all the social partners to present the method and then he will bring the social partners together,” confirmed the minister without indicating a timetable. “Those who want to come will come,” she added, while believing that “the interest is for everyone to come […] because we are talking about the future of the country.”
Budget 2025: the government plans “more than 30 billion” euros in savings
The Minister of Public Accounts, Amélie de Montchalin, indicated on Wednesday on TF1 that France’s budget for 2025 would provide for “a historic effort” of savings of “more than 30 billion euros”. While the Senate resumes examination of the budget today, she then underlined the accuracy of press information mentioning 32 billion in savings and 21 billion in revenue increases.
The minister also estimated that the social partners would “manage” to find common ground on pension reform. However, she avoided the question of whether this contested 2023 reform would be submitted to Parliament even in the event of disagreement, as demanded by the Socialist Party so as not to censor the government of Prime Minister François Bayrou on Thursday. The latter indicated in his general policy speech on Tuesday that in the absence of an agreement, the current reform would continue to apply. “We cannot, while the negotiations will begin on Friday, already disarm this social dialogue, already start from the principle that the social partners are not going to succeed. They will succeed, because on the arduousness, on the careers of women , careers ruined, they made proposals,” declared Amélie de Montchalin.
She also mentioned the fate of two measures which had set fire to the powder in the public service, the extension of the waiting period from 1 to 3 days in the event of sick leave, and the reduction of compensation during sick leave. “It was discussed by the Minister of the Civil Service and the unions not necessarily to go for the two days of elimination of waiting days but to maintain the measure which means that we are only compensated at 90% of our salary ” she said, referring the discussion to the Senate.
Jordan Bardella asks François Bayrou to reframe François Rebsamen
The boss of the RN Jordan Bardella asked François Bayrou on Wednesday to reframe his minister François Rebsamen who declared Tuesday evening “to respect all political forces except the RN”. “François Bayrou should quickly remind his minister that the respect owed to the 11 million French voters of the National Rally is one of our main demands”, reacted on X Jordan Bardella. “And the insult towards them is a red line that it is better not to cross when you are part of a minority government,” he added, in an allusion to the power that the RN holds to make bring down the government by voting for censorship with the left.
“I respect all political forces except the RN. This is my position. I do not respect those – not all, fortunately, I know some in my department (Côte-d’Or, editor’s note) – who make speeches of hatred and exclusion of others is not my cup of tea,” the Minister of Regional Planning declared on BFMTV on Tuesday evening. This affair recalls another: in September, the RN had obtained from Michel Barnier that he reframe the Minister of the Economy, Antoine Armand, who had excluded the National Rally from the “republican arc” during an interview on France Inter.
End of life: Yaël Braun-Pivet “extremely disappointed” by Bayrou’s lack of commitment
The President of the National Assembly Yaël Braun-Pivet said on Wednesday “extremely disappointed” by the lack of commitment from François Bayrou on the resumption of the parliamentary debate on the end of life, recognizing that the debates would not resume on February 3 as she had requested on Tuesday.
“I was, like many, extremely disappointed. I was expecting commitments and I did not see them. For me, it is extremely important and we cannot ignore this debate like that,” he said. -she declared on RTL. “The French are waiting for it, Parliament is waiting for it. I mentioned the date of February 3 because it is a commitment from Michel Barnier. We can clearly see that with the budget, this date will obviously be postponed since it There will be the budgetary debate instead, but in any case, I expect us to debate it quickly,” she added.