Pensions: behind the 19,000 amendments to LFI, the strategy of obstruction

The maneuver is well known and has existed since the dawn of time at the Palais Bourbon. Here she is back in early 2020 with the group La France Insoumise. To oppose the pension reform which arrives Monday, February 3 in committee at the National Assembly, Jean-Luc Mélenchon's troops have tabled more than 19,000 amendments out of the 22,000 tabled in total by all of the groups. The objective is to save time to delay the adoption of the reform as much as possible. Inevitably, the strategy annoys the majority. On Twitter, Olivier Véran, LREM deputy and general rapporteur of the Social Affairs committee, even accused LFI of practicing "legislative zadism".

Thousands of identical amendments

The 17 deputies of La France Insoumise have tabled the same amendments, each time individually. However, it is customary that when the same proposal is made by several parliamentarians, all come together to defend it jointly. The rebels propose in particular to delete all of the articles, then each paragraph of the bill. "And it goes in the absurdity, to the point that they delete the paragraphs where we bring the minimum contribution to 1000 euros, they delete the paragraph which aims to widen the field of arduousness to the public service", mocked Marc Fesneau, the minister in charge of Relations with the Parliament, Sunday on France Info. The rebels also propose amendments which, by their nature, have no chance of being adopted. Before article 2, the LFI deputies wish, for example, to add this sentence, deliberately provocative: "Write the title of section 2 thus:" A botched reform to temporal fields of application as deliberately vague material "" .

Mélenchon assumes to use "all possible weapons"

Despite the criticisms, the leader, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, assumes the strategy of "obstruction" . "MPs would fail in their duty if they did not use all possible weapons to delay the final decision that could be imposed without it. If we let them do it, in three days it would be over, " he argued last week on BFM TV. Even if a "clean-up" of the amendments, carried out by the officials of the Assembly, is in hand, the deputies of the majority are not very optimistic. "The Assembly services are examining the admissibility of the amendments, but everything is admissible if it is a question of deleting an article or a paragraph ...", regrets with the Figaro Olivier Véran.

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Each Insoumis deputy will have, as required by the rules, two minutes to present each amendment, not counting the time for debate which may ensue behind it. Suffice to say that the examination of the bill, which must be adopted by the summer, could last a long time, a very long time ... Faced with this threat of "decay" , the executive and the majority are considering a means bypass LFI's strategy. In Le Figaro , the president of the MoDem group, Patrick Mignola, proposed Friday the use of a "49-3 deterrent" . “Clearly, if the opposition is reasonable by reducing the number of amendments to a few thousand, then this tool does not need to be triggered. Otherwise, it can be considered, in my opinion, " he defended. Nothing is settled yet. Only Richard Ferrand, the president of the National Assembly, simply assured the Parisian of this Monday that there could be a reorganization of "the timetable if it is necessary to prolong the debates" . The parliamentary battle has only just begun.

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Pension reform: a law too fragile to pass? - Watch on Figaro Live