Macron’s pension reform passes the Senate without a vote in the Assembly

The pension reform goes to the French Senate after a debate without a vote in the National Assembly due to lack of time, due to thousands of amendments presented by the left-wing party La Francia Insumisa. French MPs had until midnight on Friday to debate the pension reform in first reading and vote, but after 20 days of hectic debates they failed to consider the controversial Article 7. This point, at the heart of the reform, is being progressively raised from 62 to 64 years old the current minimum retirement age in France from 2030, as claimed by the government.

There were more than 20,000 amendments to the text, most of them from La Francia Insumis. Although Nupes, the alliance of left-wing parties to which this formation belongs, withdrew them by the thousands this week, there was no time to review the entire text or vote on it. France’s Insoumise has adopted a strategy of parliamentary obstruction to prevent a vote on the text in the National Assembly, which has been heavily criticized by the government.

The discussions ended as they began: with anger and a tense atmosphere in the hall. “Ladies and gentlemen representatives of La Francia Insumisa, you insulted me for 15 days, but no one gave in and here we are before you for reform,” said a hoarse voice. Olivier Dussoptthe Minister of Labor, after intense discussions in the assembly, while the representatives of La Francia Insumisa left the hall in protest.

Senators, who will begin considering the text on February 28, will have 15 days to discuss the controversial pension reform. The mandate of the parliament ends on March 12 at midnight. If the two chambers fail to agree on the text, the pension reform will be considered by a joint parliamentary committee on March 14.

After midnight, the National Assembly rejected, as expected, a motion of no confidence by the National Pregroup, Marine Le Pen’s far-right party. Only 89 far-right MPs voted for government censorship. The rest of the parliamentary groups have already announced that they will not vote on the text of the extreme right. At least 287 votes were needed for prosperity and the overthrow of the government.

Renacimiento, the party of President Emmanuel Macron, believes that after the rejection of the motion of no confidence of the National Regrouping, it is clear that “there is no majority in the National Assembly [de diputados] against the pension reform.

Prime Minister, Elisabeth BorneHe harshly criticized the “two populisms” of La Francia Unsubmisa and the National Regrouping, which he considered “the two faces of contempt for democracy.”

Criticism of the blockade

The head of the French executive has expressed regret over the absence of the representatives of the National Regrouping in the debates on the pension reform and their strategy to suddenly pass a vote of no confidence in the government at the last minute, despite the fact that they knew it would not advance it.

Borne also expressed his regret that La Francia Insumisa prevented the passage of the text in the National Assembly with its thousands of amendments. He accused them of “wanting chaos in the parliament”, of “not believing in democracy” and of making a “circus” out of it. The Prime Minister also blamed them for resorting to insults instead of a constructive and reasoned discussion about the reform.

The head of the executive was also confident that the debates on pension reform that will take place in the coming weeks will allow the text to be “enriched” to guarantee the future of the “pay-as-you-go” pension system.

Likewise, French unions are threatening to paralyze France on March 7 if the government does not withdraw the controversial pension reform. According to a recent poll, 67 percent of French people oppose the text proposed by President Emmanuel Macron.