Pensions: Republicans divided on the outcome of the vote in the National Assembly
How many are they ? After voting in favor of pension reform in the Senate, the right is preparing for a second round at the Palais-Bourbon. If the vote of the senators led by Bruno Retailleau made it possible to enrich the text, the outcome of the final ballot of the 63 LR deputies, divided into three blocks – for, against or abstention – is still pending.
This Sunday in a platform granted to the JDD, Eric Ciotti, favorable to the reform, placed himself in “a useful opposition to the French”. “And we have been by adapting the proposed measures to the difficult context experienced by our compatriots”, adds the president of the Republicans, accused of playing into the government’s game. “With Olivier Marleix, Bruno Retailleau and President Larcher, we have obtained a less brutal reform”, he pleads in the hope of rallying his camp by next Thursday, the day of voting in both chambers.
Margin of error
No way for Eric Ciotti to come back to the dissidence of Aurélien Pradié, ousted for this reason from the management of LR. However, Olivier Marleix, at the head of the group and the only LR deputy to sit on the joint joint committee, intends to come back to the amendment calling for the consideration 43 annuities for long careers. A measure that the Senate dismissed, limiting itself to extending the consideration of the device to 20-21 year olds. The cost of reform – a “red line” for LR – is still in play after the creation of a senior CDI and the adoption a bonus for mothers.
“It’s a negotiation but we will try it”, assumes his entourage who sees it as an additional argument to convince the last recalcitrant deputies. And tip the balance. “Marleix wants a vote, it’s also a question of credibility and leadership,” says one on the right. An internal count gauges between “15 to 20 deputies” all of the “against”, from “34 to 36” those in favor of the reform. Enough to guarantee a vote? The margin of error retained so far by the executive is established at ten votes by adding up the possible defections within the majority groups.
The opportunity of a 49.3
Divided equally between “for” and “against”, the 19 LR deputies from Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, the region chaired by Laurent Wauquiez, are particularly scrutinized. “At the start of the examination of the text, we could still hope that some would abstain, worries a Renaissance deputy, who regrets the number of concessions granted to the right for such an uncertain result. The reform suffers from the quarrels at LR. »
Still, the option of a 49.3 has an advantage for Les Républicains. It avoids the right to count itself at the risk of spreading its divisions even more. A thorn in the side of Eric Ciotti, guarantor of party unity. The latter would not take a dim view of this eventuality, if the vote of the LR deputies were ultimately to be lacking. “Edouard Philippe used 49.3 well during the first pension reform, and the government of the time had the majority”, advances an LR deputy.
