Posted Jan 29, 2023, 5:26 PMUpdated Jan 29, 2023, 6:52 PM
Tuesday’s day risks being “difficult, even very difficult” in transport, warned the minister in charge, Clément Beaune, on RTL on Sunday, before the second day of mobilization against the pension reform.
For the government, it is the whole week which is opening which is likely to be very difficult on the pension front: because there is, at the same time, after the day of successful mobilization of January 19, that of Tuesday, but also the start, this Monday, of discussions on the bill in the Social Affairs Committee of the National Assembly. And they do not look like a walk in the park, far from it, including with the majority. Finally, and above all, there are French people whose opposition to the reform does not weaken.
“More Negotiable”
So, at the start of this crucial week, with Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, the few heavyweights of the government stepped up to “assume”, according to the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, in an interview with “Parisien “, to” work more “to” put our pension system in balance “. “We get nothing for nothing”, continues the one who tries, dividingly, to drive a wedge into the anti-reform front: he distinguishes “unions, the traditional left”, and “laziness and bobo leftism” or even the Nupes, which only “seeks to border the country”.
But, like the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, and in exactly the same terms, he assures, faced with the “improvements” requested even in the majority, that the parliamentary debate “should make it possible to respond to these concerns. »
The head of government, interviewed by Franceinfo on the sidelines of a public meeting in her constituency, was firm on the major parameters of the financial balance of the reform. Elisabeth Borne reiterated that raising the legal age to 64 “is no longer negotiable”. “What is no longer negotiable is the balance in 2030,” adds his entourage. “Retirement at 64 and the acceleration of the Touraine reform, this is what we proposed after hearing the employers’ organizations and trade unions, after having exchanged with the various parliamentary groups”, hammered the Prime Minister again.
She “bombs her chest”, torpedoed LFI coordinator Manuel Bompard on BFMTV. “A provocation forty-eight hours before the demonstration”, decided the communist leader Fabien Roussel on Europe 1. A “chin blow”, added the deputy LR Aurélien Pradié. Without this, “there would be no more reform”, defended the boss of the Modem, François Bayrou, on France Inter.
Women with small pensions or long careers
However, this did not prevent Elisabeth Borne from sending signals and half-opening a door on some developments, outside the “heart of the reform reactor”, according to the expression of Clément Beaune. Because the government knows it, if it does not want to give the impression of wanting to let go, it will all the same be forced, if it wants to pass its reform in Parliament without 49.3, to move, both the demands in its majority , and in particular at the Modem ally, but also at LR, on long careers where women are important.
On a review clause in 2027, requested by LR and the Modem, Elisabeth Borne, if she emphasizes that the presidential and the legislative elections are one “by nature”, is not closed to a “point of stage” on ” return to balance. Above all, on women, a subject which has been controversial all week and which concentrates amendments from the majority as from LR, Elisabeth Borne assured that an analysis was underway on the quarters for maternity and for education.
“Today, there are many women who cannot use them to the full. We see who it is. Small pensions? Women who started working early. […] or when you are a senior executive with the prospect of a good pension, maybe you are one of the people who may have to work a little longer”. The rapporteur for the text in the Assembly, Stéphanie Rist, has not, at this stage, tabled any amendments. The ministerial cabinets phosphorus on these points before the battle in the Hemicycle.
Terminal on France 2 Thursday evening
The government, which swears that “nothing is decided”, seeks to move on these subjects of long careers and women. With, if possible, measures that can kill two birds with one stone, that is to say, reach women with long careers and/or small pensions. And without these modifications costing too much…
This will be on the lunch menu this Monday between Emmanuel Macron and Elisabeth Borne and undoubtedly on the political program “L’Evénement” from France 2 Thursday evening in which the Prime Minister will participate. Until then, and on these possible developments, the dynamics of Tuesday will of course be crucial.