Pension reform, budget… the Barnier government under pressure

The repeal of the pension reform was adopted in committee. It will be debated in the Assembly on November 28.

The Assembly's Social Affairs Committee adopted the repeal of the pension reform, proposed by France Insoumise and supported by the National Rally. The text will be debated on Thursday, November 28 in the hemicycle and it is a new stone in the government's shoe.

“It’s not smart to want to repeal the pension reform at a time when everyone is saying that public finances are rubbish”fumes for example an advisor to the executive. The government has one objective: to prevent the Assembly from voting on repeal next Thursday. Even if a vote by the Assembly is not enough – it would require a long parliamentary series – it would be a terrible blow for the executive to take. In 2023, there was no vote to validate retirement at 64 but a forced passage via 49.3. If the only time MPs vote is to say no, this will be hard to accept in public opinion for the defenders of reform.

To prevent the vote, a solution seems to be emerging for the government, on the Macronist side and on the LR side. This solution rhymes with obstruction, even if they refute the term. The examination of the text will take place in the parliamentary niche of the rebels who set the agenda and the characteristic of a niche is that we must vote before midnight, otherwise it is over, the carriage turns into pumpkin. The idea is therefore to prolong the debates so as not to go as far as a vote, by multiplying the amendments, as summarized by a Macronist MP: “a strategy of a big nag, with maximum presence and messiness”.

This subject of pensions comes into an already complicated sequence for the Prime Minister, between the anger of farmers, the anger of mayors hostile to budget cuts, and the threat of censorship by the RN. “It’s not easy” for Michel Barnier blows one of his lieutenants. Marine Le Pen does not rule out voting for censorship with the left just before Christmas. This provokes various reactions in the Barnier camp. There are those who keep the old troops calm and bet on a simple bluff from the RN, just to regain control after the prosecution's requisitions against Marine Le Pen. There are also the defeatists: “we're going to fall in not long”worries an advisor to the executive, because he says, “the RN and LFI have an interest in chaos”.