after the protests, the Senate attacked Article 7

Same schedule, same neighborhood, but atmosphere at the antipodes. While the unions had called on Tuesday to put “France at a standstill” and marched in Paris a few steps from the Senate, guarded by numerous gendarmerie trucks, the senators pursued examination of the pension reform bill. With the firm intention of advancing on the merits.

After discussing article 6 at length, the parliamentarians tackled the heart of the text in the evening with article 7 – which the deputies had failed to do -, which plans to postpone the legal age of departure retired from 62 to 64 years old.

“The timing of the examination of the text is respected”had also rejoiced a few hours earlier Bruno Retailleau, the boss of the LR senators, in a group meeting, while now wishing to accelerate. “Not to vote for a text is to fuel anti-parliamentarianismhe insisted. Otherwise, many French people will consider that to discuss endlessly, not to do our job, which is to vote, Parliament is useless.

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“We will go with the will to the end of the text”, pursued by his side the President of the Senate, Gérard Larcher, calling on the elected officials to “reduce the debates after article 7”. A way of indicating that all the regulatory provisions (article 38 and 42 of the Senate, in particular) will be taken, if necessary, by the senatorial majority in order to be able to address all the articles before Sunday evening, the deadline for discussions.

There is no question of allowing ourselves to be taken hostage by the opposition’s desire to obstruct

Bruno Retailleau, president of the Les Républicains group in the Senate

“We will have to be directive, and the government must show courage”, continued the President of the Senate in a group meeting. If article 7 were to be discussed overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday by LR and centrist senators, the senatorial majority intended to go further.

With the next objective of dwelling on article 8 and the questions of long careers and early departure, article 9 on hardship and the prevention of professional wear and tear, article 10 on the revaluation of small pensions, or even Article 13 and the subject of combining employment and pensions. For Bruno Retailleau, “there is no question of allowing ourselves to be taken hostage by the opposition’s desire to obstruct”.

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To meet the deadlines before the deadline of March 12, Gérard Larcher therefore chaired the night session again on Tuesday evening. To satisfy the government. “What I hope is that, in this hemicycle, the expression of the democratic debate and of our institutions will continue to manifest themselves. This is what I perceived from the examination of this text», rejoiced Gabriel Attal.

This is right-wing reform! But the refusal goes beyond the left-right divide!

Marie-Noëlle Lienemann, senator attached to the Communist, Republican, Ecologist and Citizen group

And the Minister of Action and Public Accounts to denounce, beyond the law “legit” to manifest, “those who call for blocking everywhere, all the time, and who call, to use certain words, to bring the French economy to its knees”.

“You have been offered many solutions, Mr. Minister, to tell the French that you have understood them. This is not the case”replied Patrick Kanner, the president of the PS group in the Senate. “This is right-wing reform! denounced Senator Marie-Noëlle Lienemann (Communist, Republican, Ecologist and Citizen group), but a large part of those who demonstrate are not from the left, (…) the refusal goes beyond the left-right divide!”

If, currently, a majority of French people say they are opposed to the pension reform, for Bruno Retailleau, “a reversal of public opinion is to be expected in the days to come if the conflict hardens”.