The Social Affairs Committee of the National Assembly has been examining since Wednesday morning a bill from the independent centrist group Liot which aims to repeal the postponement of the legal retirement age to 64 years. But the majority and its allies seem determined to do everything to prevent a vote during the in-session review scheduled for June 8. So, does this proposal even have a chance of being debated in the hemicycle? It went badly this morning.
The examination which began on the morning of May 31 in the Social Affairs Committee is in a way a pre-examination of the text, before the examination in plenary session. They are 73 deputies and they will rewrite the text tabled by the Liot group, in anticipation of its examination in the hemicycle. The presidential camp and the LRs, between them, have the majority in committee. And they simply decided this morning to delete article 1 which provides for the repeal of the postponement of the legal retirement age at 64. The bill was therefore emptied of its substance.
First round won by the majority
But the oppositions have more than one trick up their sleeve. And are determined to play with the rules of the Assembly. First possibility, and this is what has been happening since midday: the oppositions are trying to prevent by all means, in particular obstruction, a vote on the entire bill in committee, by see you tonight. This would have the effect of sending the initial text to the session on June 8 with this famous article 1. Second possibility: reintroduce the repeal of the retirement age at 64 in the text by an amendment, by June 8. The President of the Assembly Yaël Braun-Pivet could then decide on her own to declare the amendment inadmissible and therefore prevent the vote in the hemicycle.
Impossibility of creating uncompensated expenses
Because there is one thing that is forbidden for deputies, when they write a text of law. It is to create additional uncompensated expenses. However, and this is the main argument of the majority from the start, retiring at 62 means creating at least 15 billion euros in additional expenses. So certainly, the Liot group proposes to organize a big social conference to find the necessary money, but that does not convince anyone in the presidential camp. Visibly under pressure from Matignon, Yaël Braun-Pivet has already said that there should be no debate and that this proposal was clearly unconstitutional. We can imagine what his decision would be. And then, the Renaissance deputies have been trumpeting it for several weeks: if ever the text were finally voted on in the Assembly, the Senate would reject it and as a last resort, the proposal would be rejected by the Constitutional Council, whose role is, as its name indicates it, to judge the constitutionality of the texts of law. Which makes a minister, very serene, say that this proposal has no chance of succeeding: “ draw a line under 15 billion euros in revenue, that does not exist »according to him.
A last stand for the opposition
If this text does not succeed, other groups will always be able to submit similar texts to request the repeal of the legal postponement of the retirement age, but they would most certainly meet the same fate. The unions, for their part, are calling on employees to participate massively in a fourteenth day of mobilization on June 6, next week. But the mobilization was down in recent days. In short, the government’s bet to see the movement run out of steam seems on the way to being won. Which makes the boss of the RN deputies Marine Le Pen say that if the French are opposed to the pension reform, the next deadline is 2027. In other words, the battle for pensions is lost and if the voters want the repeal, we will have to vote for it in the next presidential election.
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