Macron’s pension reform goes to the parliament for a vote tomorrow

The two houses of the French parliament will vote this Thursday pension reform project Emmanuel Macron after the mixed commission of the Assembly and the Senate agreed on Wednesday common legal text. In the meantime, the unions tried to prevent the adoption of the bill with a “last cry” in the streets and warned that the discontent will not end with approval and that they will continue to mobilize.

The mixed joint commission, composed of seven deputies and seven senators, met behind closed doors and confirmed twenty articles of the legal text. 10 votes for and 4 againstaccording to legislative sources at the end of the meeting, Efe agency reports.

Ten positive votes were those of the Macronist legislators and conservatives from the Los Republicanos party, doc opposition came from the left and extreme right

Demonstrations in Paris

General Secretary of the French Democratic Confederation of Labor (CFDT, the first trade union in the country), laurent bergerhe explained at the start of the protest in Paris that it was “the latest expression of the world of work to tell parliamentarians not to vote for this reform”.

“It is the last cry of the trade union world,” Berger pointed out, after admitting that he would never question the legitimacy of the final vote by the Parliament, which is very likely to take place tomorrow.

Uncertainty

Voting will take place in the morning in the Senate and in the afternoon in the National Assembly. If the Government does not achieve an absolute majority in the House of Representatives, it may decide to activate a constitutional article (49.3.) which allows you to pass legislation without a vote, but opens the door for the opposition to be introduced motions of no confidence it would have to be discussed within 48 hours.

Berger asked the members of parliament to take into account what is happening in their constituencies when going to the polls, alluding to the protests that were announced throughout the country this Wednesday. eighth day of mobilizationand the majority opinion is against the reform, as shown by all polls.

General Secretary of the General Confederation of Labor (CGT, the second French central), Philippe MartinezHe warned that resorting to 49.3 would be “the worst of the worst” and would “undermine democracy” because it does not take into account “what is happening on the street”.

Martínez condemned that the government opted for an “accelerated procedure” for parliamentary processing of laws of this importance.

And referring to Macron’s sentence about his project, he pointed out that “when it is said that it is the mother of reforms (…) you have to take time for discussion”. “From the beginning – added the leader of the CGT – the Government and above all the President of the Republic elected method that does not favor the expression».

Asked what would happen if the bill moved forward, Martínez replied that “for us, we have to keep fighting.” He also reminded that in the past “there were laws that were passed and which they were never applied».

Government spokesman, Olivier Veranhe stated at the press conference that Macron reminded this morning during the Council of Ministers that “Parliament has full legitimacy in our country”.

The main axis of the reform is raising the minimum retirement age from the current 62 to 64. One of the points that the mixed joint commission must specify is to what extent the so-called device for “long careers”.

It is about enabling early retirement (before the age of 64) to people who started working before the age of 21 and who cover the entire contribution periodwhich in France progressively rises to 43 years, based on the previous reform, during the socialist mandate François Hollande.