Pension reform: what Emmanuel Macron has planned

The Head of State, Emmanuel Macron, confirmed it during this meeting: he does not want to “give in” or “let things go”. Especially since no union, in particular the CFDT, seems ready for a showdown with the government. At least for the moment.

“This does not mean that the reform will end with a postponement of the legal age to 65, deciphers an observer interviewed by Le Parisien. It simply means that this is the position that we will defend when starting the examination of the text in parliament. Then, we will see according to the debates”.

And it was the question of the majority to be obtained in the Assembly that inflamed the debates. With a central question: can a majority emerge thanks to the votes of the right? Several voices are raised on the fact that we must stop seducing the boss of the LR group at the Palais Bourbon, Olivier Marleix. Finally, the majority will rather opt for the search for individual support, which Emmanuel Macron approves, the Ile-de-France daily believes.

Because time is running out. It is in January 2023 that the text will be officially presented to the Council of Ministers, before being integrated into an amending Social Security finance bill at the start of the year.

The president has made his choice. He will go all the way, even if it means using 49.3 as he has already done, as many times as necessary. But this text of law can only be drawn once per parliamentary session. So how will he do it?

Recall that 49.3 allows by the Constitution to engage the responsibility of the government on the vote, after deliberation of the Council of Ministers. This vote must correspond to a finance bill, a social security financing bill or a bill under debate in the National Assembly.

The pension reform up to age 65 therefore includes these possibilities. If the Prime Minister decides to resort to it, his decision entails the immediate suspension of the discussion of the bill. The text is considered adopted, without being put to the vote, unless a motion of censure is tabled within 24 hours. Not everyone really agrees with this plan, even within the presidential majority.

Around the meeting table, Richard Ferrand says he is rather in favor of a starting age of 64 with an extension of the contribution period. Edouard Philippe, he remains rather discreet on the issue. This is not the case of François Bayrou, who was voluble. The boss of the Modem regrets that there is not more “pedagogy”.

It was he who had obtained the postponement of the reform. “The French did not understand what we wanted to do with pensions,” he says, quoted by Le Parisien. “I clearly defended it, my reform, in the first and second rounds,” replies the President of the Republic.

The Prime Minister will receive the presidents of the parliamentary groups on December 13 and 14, on the eve of the presentation in the media of the reform.