Like a sham. The adoption of the bill on pensions in the Council of Ministers could appear as a result. But, and it is a minister who says it, "the road is still long".
If the executive hopes to now also be able to talk about other things, including ecology, communitarianism, work, it has not finished with the contested pension reform, "a single subject of government bandwidth" in recent weeks, according to l expression of a counselor.
While opponents of the project (1.3 million demonstrators according to the CGT, 249,000 according to the Ministry of the Interior) again demonstrated throughout France on Friday, two crucial deadlines remain to come.
The funders conference, first of all, which will open on Thursday 30 January. In Matignon, we want to believe that with this new framework of discussions between government, unions and employers, "the tension will decrease". “The objective is indeed to reach an agreement. There is less urgency, it's going to be diagnosis, costing ”, argues a relative of the Prime Minister.
Failure is not allowed here. If necessary, warns CFDT boss Laurent Berger, the situation would remain "extremely explosive. In the Assembly in particular, where the debate would move. At the risk, for the majority, of being undermined by divisions. Preview, with this warning from a LREM MP, in favor of the CFDT: "Without an agreement with the reformist unions, I do not want to empower the government to legislate by ordinances, I want parliamentary democracy to regain its rights. "
Before that, the landing of the text in Parliament could give the executive a hard time. In the corridors of the Palais Bourbon, many are expecting "a Lépine contest of the amendment" according to an expression lent to the president of the Assembly, Richard Ferrand. According to a participant, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe sounded the alert as early as Friday, behind closed doors of the Council of Ministers: "We will need a solid bench, solid rapporteurs, a firm presidency. "
Leave the subject in the air until the municipal ones?
What strategy will the opposition adopt? A minister expects a cocktail mixing "amendments, points of order and motion of censure". Clearly, to obstruction, with in mind, said the same, "to hang around the longest to exhaust the government politically". And leave the subject in the air until the municipal elections.
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Until then, the government has more work to do. In a notice given this Friday, the Council of State ordered him to review his copy by… when the text was tabled in Parliament. At issue, in particular, the initial impact study which appeared to him, "for certain provisions, insufficient".
All against the backdrop, a contestation that lasts, even so, "France is resuming a more normal rhythm of life," we breathe in Matignon, thinking of the resumption of traffic in transport.
VIDEO. Pension reform: “We will not let go! "
The government must now do with the multiplication of punching actions. Phenomenon on which Emmanuel Macron lingered in the Council of Ministers, noting, according to a participant, that if "the social movement crumbles, what remains of it becomes radicalized with the disinhibition and the legitimization of violence. "
It is time to point the responsibility for the oppositions, this same minister being offended that "neither LR nor the PS have condemned anything". Indignation shared by the Head of State. "Silence is also a guarantee of all this," he warned, calling on "the utmost firmness." The fact that trade unionists can be placed in police custody, as in the Dordogne, has caused a stir among the majority.
As for the opposition to the text, it is still heard in multiple sectors. An LREM deputy testifies to this with this understatement: “We are challenged in a fairly… dynamic way in constituencies. An effect "I lose," observes a minister, who is also reflected in the polls. Which makes a Walker say, thinking of the months to come: "We will have to go uphill. "