Barely back from his trip to Israel and the Palestinian territories, Emmanuel Macron returned to internal affairs. By the north face, the most abrupt, that of the pension reform whose text is presented - finally? - this Friday morning in the Council of Ministers.
After a month and a half of strikes, protests in the street and even twenty months of tense consultations with the social partners, is the executive seeing the end of the tunnel? “The presentation to the Council of Ministers is not an outcome, but it is still an important step. We are not going to lie: we come from afar. The power has sometimes wavered, "said a member of the government coldly, while a big day of blockage in transport is again announced Friday to mark the presentation of the bill.
Opinion remains in favor of withdrawing the reform
“The social situation is tense in our country. But the absence of transformation seems to me even more dangerous in the long term than the will to move forward, ”Edouard Philippe returns, this Friday in the columns of“ la Croix ”.
Visiting Thursday on the aircraft carrier "Charles de Gaulle", the Prime Minister even had this sentence in front of the crew which is to join the anti-Islamic operation in the Middle East: "If one day weariness comes to you winning during deployment, which I doubt, remember the General's motto: to be inert is to be beaten ”. This says a lot about his state of mind. No way to back off. Ten days ago, barely out of the back-to-school government seminar, he said that it was "out of the question to slow down".
And too bad if opinion still remains favorable to the withdrawal of the reform. According to an Elabe poll published on January 22, more than six out of ten French people (61%) consider that Emmanuel Macron should take into account the protests against the pension reform and withdraw it. An opinion up four points in a month. “I am aware of the polls. But people are mostly fed up with disorders, ”asserts a close friend of the President of the Republic.
Many gray areas remain
This Friday morning, day of the seventh national day of demonstrations, the Secretary of State in charge of the pensions file, Laurent Pietraszewski, who replaced Jean-Paul Delevoye, will defend the text around the large oval table in the Ambassadors' lounge, at the Elysee. No surprises on the content, largely deflowered in recent days, where the concept of "pivotal age" was finally removed. It is up to the social partners to work on alternative solutions to ensure the balance of the system during the famous financing conference which will open on January 30 and must end in April.
However, there are still many gray areas, particularly with regard to the general cost of implementing this reform. Tens of billions. But how precisely? Thereupon, Matignon promises concrete answers, in particular thanks to the impact study presented this Friday morning and annexed to the bill.
"There, it's not going to be words, but numbers! Promises the entourage of Edouard Philippe, even if the study could well show that the consequences of the reform will be very contrasting depending on the career path and the professions. And the women with children, however presented as the big winners, will for the majority of them be penalized according to the standard cases of the government that we reveal.
Maybe 30,000 amendments to counter the text
A little music to which the Matignon tenant does not want to be embarked. "I believe that the massively redistributive nature of this reform of social progress will be understood and approved," he thinks in "la Croix". “We don't leave anyone behind. We really worked from the start to have the fairest reform, ”says his entourage.
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Proof that he is worried, yesterday evening Philippe again received in Matignon a group of lawyers angry at the reform. To tell them that he is "very attentive to the fate of lawyers in fragile situations", they say. And that he will ensure that "the solidarity mechanisms are activated".
Now presented in the Council of Ministers, the bill will begin to be examined in the National Assembly committee in early February, before discussion in public session from February 17.
Within the majority, we are already expecting fierce debates, fueled by tens of thousands of amendments to counter the text. Maybe 30,000. "But we will get there in one way or another. By working day, night, weekends and holidays, "warns a heavyweight of the majority, more determined than ever.