The crisis over the pension reform in
France
could achieve a "high exit" and unlock it, given the concern generated by violence and the lack of understanding among French scholars.
The Constitutional Council, the French supreme court of scholars,
will rule on its legality
next Friday, April 14, "at the end of the day."
The body has the possibility of declaring the reform completely
or partially
illegal or requesting its withdrawal and ruling on the shared initiative referendum, deposited by the left, so that
the public can be consulted.
Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, the labor unions, sixty deputies and sixty senators from the left filed an appeal before the Council of Wise Men.
On April 4, a delegation of deputies from the left and environmentalists will join for presentations before the Council, which officially
has until April 21
to issue a decision.
The wise men will be the arbiters of
one of the most serious political crises
in the country since the appearance of the Yellow Vests, in a flammable scenario.
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Fabious, with a lot of experience
The President of the Constitutional Council is a man with experience.
Laurent Fabius was Francois Mitterrand's prime minister and then French chancellor.
It will be article 7, which became article 10, which
sets the retirement age
at 64 years, which must be decided by the Council.
The Constitutional Council almost never
declares absolute censorship, but in the reform debate there are elements that it will surely address:
the lack of clarity and sincerity
in parliamentary debates.
Not only
the application of article 49.3
of the Constitution, the mechanism that the government used to not approve it via Parliament, but also
the limitation of the time of interlocutors
in the debate in the Senate.
The Council can
validate the referendum project.
Meeting between government and unions
After the tenth march, which ended in violence and burning of the Black Blocs in the Plaza de la Nación, on Tuesday night, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne
invited the trade unionists
of the Intersindical to meet next week at the Palace of Matignon.
It could be on Monday or Tuesday because the trade unionists have called for another march on April 6.
Protesters in the Place de la Nation in Paris.
Photo: Bloomberg
On Wednesday morning, government spokesman Olivier Veran had rejected "the mediation" offered by Laurent Berger, the leader of the moderate CFDT, the first French workers' union.
He said that mediators were not needed but there were other routes.
Shortly after the call came from Borne to Berger, a Social Democrat who has surpassed the CGT in number of affiliates.
A gesture from Macron
The call responds to a cry from the ministers to President Emmanuel Macron to make
"a gesture" to get the country out of the crisis
.
They were joined by their allies, the MODEM deputies.
They appealed to Israel and the incredible images of the marches against the reform of the Supreme Court that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was seeking, with the streets packed with protesters defending democracy and denouncing the dictatorship that was coming.
Netanyahu resolved on Monday night to announce a "pause" following the resignation of the defense minister and the Israeli president's demand to halt the reform.
Netanyahu said he accepted it "to avoid civil war."
Exactly what the opponents of the pension reform in France demand, who mobilized more than 740,000 people on Tuesday, according to the Ministry of the Interior -more than 2 million according to the CGT- for their tenth day of action.
don't give in
Also, Emmanuel Macron is not Netanyahu.
At the Salón des Ambassadeurs, in the Élysée Palace, the President of the Republic warned his ministers and executives from his field on Monday that a "pause" in his project would be equivalent to a "withdrawal
"
.
The slogan was applied the next day at the top of the State.
“We must not go back,”
former Prime Minister Édouard Philippe insisted on TMC on Monday, echoing those who advise Emmanuel Macron
to “hold on.”
Rather, the executive intends to use issues other than pensions in his discussion with unionists: distribution of business wealth, the exceptional contribution of companies that obtain "super
profits",
end of career and "low wages".
Called with experience
Given the tense social climate, marked in recent days by violence, some urged the president to consent to a "gesture."
His predecessor, François Hollande, called on BFMTV on Sunday to "invite the inter-union",
"without preconditions"
, when former socialist prime minister Bernard Cazeneuve asks to "suspend" his reform.
In his camp, his allies in the Democratic Movement (MoDem) push him to
consider the "mediation"
proposed by the CFDT.
"It's good to have one or two people to try to find a dialogue and have a certain distance," the head of the centrist deputies, Jean-Paul Mattei, insisted before the press on Tuesday.
A leading position for Renaissance MPs Stella Dupont and Patrick Vignal, members of the majority's left wing.
.
What then to do with the bill, approved without a vote by the National Assembly, through article 49.3 of the Constitution?
The answer
will be known on April 14
.
The text is in the hands of the president of the Constitutional Council, Laurent Fabius, and the other eight "Elders" of the high jurisdiction.
Three scenarios are possible: full compliance with the bill, censorship of many measures, or total censorship.
France cannot continue in this political and social crisis and a blockade that is in the hands of
a capricious president.
The trade unionists will go to the meeting in Matignon to discuss retirements and nothing else.
If Macron does not tone down,
he will further set the country on fire
and be worse than the Yellow Vests crisis, which tore apart his first term.
Paris, correspondent
ap
look also
Romain Slitine: "The pension reform in France arouses strong protest because citizens do not feel heard"
Violent clashes, tear gas and injuries in a protest of environmentalists in France