MEPs vote in committee against repeal of retirement at 64

The deputies voted this Wednesday against article 1 of the bill of the group Libertés, Indépendants, Outre-mer et Territoires (Liot) which provides for the repeal of the decline in the legal age to 64 years. The National Assembly’s Social Affairs Committee had been studying the Liot group’s bill since the end of the morning.

The commission is made up of 72 deputies. Amendments deleting this article 1^is were adopted by 38 votes to 34.

But the text, carried by the independent group Liot and whose examination continues, is not buried for all that.

Liot can reintroduce the repeal article by an amendment

This first ballot was narrowly won on Wednesday thanks in particular to the votes of the LR group which added to those of the majority – only two right-wing deputies out of eight joined their votes to those of the other oppositions to defend the repeal of the 64-year-old .

“I am appalled, that means we are not going to vote on this text. Shame on the LRs on this one, they are only betraying their voters, ”reacted MP RN Laure Lavalette.

The left, LFI at the forefront, counter-attacked by tabling more than a thousand amendments to the following article of the bill, in the hope of preventing the debates from coming to an end. “If we don’t have time to discuss the whole text, it will return to its initial state during the session, there may be an interest in doing that,” explained LFI deputy Alexis Corbière.

The presidential camp, on its side, has a few tricks up its sleeve to try to prevent a vote.

Already, by succeeding in deleting this Wednesday the article of repeal of the 64 years in committee, it obliges the Liot group to reintroduce its measure by an amendment before June 8.

In this case, the President of the National Assembly would be authorized to brandish the ax of financial admissibility herself, by invoking Article 40 of the Constitution. “I will take my responsibilities”, had also warned Yaël Braun-Pivet on Tuesday.

A text that ignites, before the session of June 8

The bill puts the Palais-Bourbon in turmoil, even before arriving on June 8 in session.

Despite the slim chances of succeeding on the legislative level, it maintains the flame of the opponents of the reform promulgated in mid-April, in the face of a government worried about the political message that its possible adoption would send.

“We are not lying to the French by carrying, with the greatest demagogy, a text which everyone here knows, for good, that it would be censored by the Constitutional Council”, launched Tuesday the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, before the deputies during of the sitting of current affairs questions to the government.

The President of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, also stepped up to the plate: “There should be no debate on this article which is clearly unconstitutional”, she said on France 2, in reference to the repeal measure at the heart of the text supported by the left, the RN and certain LR deputies.

“A deepening of the democratic crisis”

Not enough to influence the position of the rebellious Eric Coquerel, who announced without surprise on Tuesday that he had “decided to make the bill admissible”. He delivered his decision to the press, after being seized as chairman of the Finance Committee by elected representatives of the majority calling on him to block in the name of the Constitution.

The majority tax the repeal text of “scam”, because even adopted by the National Assembly, it would have “no chance” to go through with its parliamentary course. But such a vote would be a “political earthquake”, argues the leader of Liot, Bertrand Pancher.

“Macronie still wants to impose the will of the presidential monarch. Are we still in democracy? In the Republic no”, launched the rebellious leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon on Twitter. If the majority manages to avoid a vote on June 8, “it would be a deepening of the democratic crisis”, thundered the communist deputy Sébastien Jumel.