Emmanuel Macron said it himself, by receiving the majority parliamentarians at the Elysée. In his eyes, two stages are crucial for pension reform: first successful reading of the text in the National Assembly, then the financing conference. Suffice to say that the scenario that has been written since the beginning of the week thwarts his plans.
While a tenth interprofessional day against the reform took place this Thursday, the executive is reassured by noting "the constant fall in mobilization" from the street: 92,000 in France according to the Ministry of the Interior, or 30,000 less than February 6. But it appears in the trap with this text that the Council of State itself considered badly put together. The social partners start their work in pain, the deputies in an unnamed quagmire. From the summit of the State to the corridors of the Assembly, passing by the headquarters of trade union centers and employers' organizations, each unrolls its partition with the hope of winning the battle of opinion.
49.3? "This is not the option considered today"
Theater is played mainly at the Palais Bourbon. Between an avalanche of amendments, the continuous reminders to the rules, the names of birds, and the suspension of sessions, the discussion is bogged down. The memory of July 2018, when the Benalla affair paralyzed the debates on constitutional reform, comes back to some. And hangs the shadow of 49.3, which allows the government to pass a bill without a vote ... but at what political price?
“This is not the option considered today. We are still in the idea that we must debate this reform ", hammered on to Matignon, where however this limit was fixed:" That the text be voted on at first reading before the municipal elections. Because the macronist strategists are convinced of it, the heart of their electorate expects the executive that it will not falter. And demands order.
Ministers and tenors of the majority are waiting to see "how the weekend will go". But the lines have moved to the top of the state on the use of this clubbed article provided for by the Constitution. “It was never the will of the government, of the majority. This is not the goal, believes the boss of LREM, Stanislas Guerini. I am against a 49.3 suffered. But if it comes from a broad parliamentary approach, to avoid an impediment ... 49.3 has a bad press, but there is worse in life than engaging the confidence of the government in a text. "
The Walkers want to stage the obstruction
So yes, perhaps, but not without having "staged the obstruction" decrypts a member of the government. Consequence, the Walkers go up in recall to denounce a “parliamentary flibusterery”, in the words of a minister. “Obstruction is not even the word anymore. It is a hostage-taking by some of the parliamentary debate. The French must become aware of the game of this handful of deputies, ”one denounces to Matignon.
The executive duo, retired president, head of government on the front line, plays a delicate part. He is aware of the authoritarian trial that would take place. An LREM deputy shudders: “In two years, we will not remember the conditions under which 49.3 was used, but the act of authority. Look what happened with Manuel Valls… ”
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So with the opposition, LFI and PCF in mind, the exchanges turned to the game of mistigri. "Their goal is that we can't examine the text to push us to a suffered 49.3 and then blame us for using it," storms Guerini, when LFI deputy, Clémentine Autain retorts: "S ' they want to go to 49.3, they must assume instead of trying to put it on our backs. Theater, with opinion as spectator.