Macron is playing a key reform of his presidential term today

Given the great uncertainty about what could happen this Thursday in the National Assembly at the vote on the pension reform, Emmanuel Macron decided last night to call his head of government, Elizabeth Borne, as well as the ministers responsible for the controversial bill. The President of the French Republic had to count the votes, find out whether the key reform of his five-year mandate would be approved by the deputies today or not, and finally study the convening of the Council of Ministers to approve law by decree, if you notice that he doesn’t have enough votes or, if he does, they would only give him a pyrrhic victory.

The joint committee, made up of seven representatives and seven senators, confirmed on Wednesday about twenty articles of the legal text, which includes moving the retirement age from 62 to 64 years, with 10 votes (Macronists and conservatives) against 4 (left and extreme right).

This Thursday, the reform project must first be confirmed by the Senate, and immediately afterwards by the National Assembly. Unless the Prime Minister finally decides to use it article 49.3. of the Constitution, which enables it to pass legislation without a vote, even though it is exposed to opposition represented by a motion of no confidence that he can overthrow the executive power if supported by the majority.

The unions organized a new day of mobilization this Wednesday, although the percentage of strikers was lower than before (23% in the electric power sector, 15% in the railway sector, 3% among civil servants), and the number of protesters was also important. but not as much as in previous calls. Apart from the garbage collection strike, which is starting to seriously affect cities like Paris, and which will last until the 20th.

At the end of the day, the Intersyndicat issued a statement in which it expressed its determination to “keep fighting”. Today at noon, they called a press conference in front of the Parliament in order to maintain pressure on the undecided representatives, especially those from the Los Republicanos party, with whom the Government is counting on the approval of the project.

The leader of the reformist trade union CFDT, laurent berger, admitted that mobilization was lower than on other occasions, but continued to maintain union unity. He asked the representatives not to vote on the law because it is “separated from the concrete reality of work”, and he warned the Government that if the law is adopted thanks to Article 49.3, it will provoke “great anger” among those who reject the reform, of whom, according to polls, two-thirds of the French are still.

Elisabeth Borne, for her part, accused the left of obstruction. According to her, “it is serious to systematically oppose the legitimacy of the street to the legitimacy of the Parliament”.