Pension reform: the last cartridges of the opponents
By summoning June 6 a new day of mobilization – there fourteenth – against the…
Pension reform: the last cartridges of the opponents
By summoning June 6 a new day of mobilization – there fourteenth – against the pension reform, the inter-union does not intend to relax the pressure on the government. On the political level, the opponents still have three levers at their disposal to, they hope, prevent the total application of the reform.
Shared initiative referendum
The decision of the Constitutional Council is expected this Wednesday, May 3. The new shared initiative referendum project (RIP) was tabled by the senatorial left. It sets the legal age limit for retirement at 62, which amounts to repealing the reform.
This second draft was submitted just before the promulgation of the reform because it is not possible to propose a RIP for a reform adopted less than a year ago. But after the failure of the first RIP, challenged by the Constitutional Council on April 14, optimism is not appropriate for the second even if its promoters consider it better bordered on the legal plan with in particular a provision concerning the financing.
The boss of the CFDT Laurent Berger believes in it “more or less”. For Sophie Binet, her counterpart at the CGT, “the RIP was written not to work”. In fact, since its conception via the constitutional reform of Nicolas Sarkozy in 2008, no RIP has succeeded in France.
· Proposed repeal bill
This is the great hope of opponents of pension reform. On June 8, the National ***embly will vote on a bill filed at the end of April by the Liot group (Freedoms, self-employed, overseas and territories) aimed at repealing the postponement to 64 of the legal retirement age.
As was the case for the “transpartisan” censure motion tabled by this same group the day after the triggering of 49.3 by the government, and narrowly rejected , this initiative is the only one which, on paper, can win a majority. In addition to the votes of the major part of this heterogeneous group which has 20 deputies, she can hope to win the votes of the left (151 deputies) and the National Rally (88). Once again, it is the Republican deputies who will hold the key to the ballot, 19 of them having voted for the motion of censure.
Most of the LR group should speak out against this bill. In addition, the majority will be able to play for time by multiplying the amendments. In the context of a parliamentary niche, which will be the case with this bill, the debates stop at midnight.
· Challenge the implementing decrees
As they had done in 2021 to counter the implementation of the unemployment insurance reform, without success in the end, the unions are preparing the legal weapon to block the application of that of pensions. How ? By appeals against the implementing decrees before the Council of State.
We still have to find loopholes in which to rush. Failing to end in success, legal recourse is likely to delay the application of the reform. The government intends that it starts on 1er september.
About thirty decrees are planned and will be written on time, we hear within the executive, especially since pension funds must integrate the changes into their software. The former went to the Council of State and the social dialogue bodies concerned for their opinion. They relate to the legal age in the event of early departures in particular.
