History is summoned with a capital H. Two days after the very large majority, 493 votes, of the National Assembly in favor of the constitutionalization of abortion and the “
conditions in which the freedom guaranteed to women is exercised to use it”,
the bill was sent to the Senate.
If the executive won a first round, it knows that the game is far from won in the Upper House, where the majority of the right and the center are clearly less inclined to vote for the text in exactly the same terms.
At the risk of derailing the legislative process.
And to prevent the convening of Parliament in Congress at Versailles, the final and key stage.
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Regardless, the government does not admit defeat.
Guest of Quotidien Thursday evening, the Minister Delegate in charge of Equality between Women and Men increased the pressure on the senators who will examine the text on February 28.
Recognizing that the debates and the final vote will not be
“simple”
in this second Hemicycle, Aurore Bergé used big words.
And spoke of a
“historic meeting.”
“It’s rare when you are a parliamentarian, deputy or senator, you press a button, you say yes or no, and you become part of History
,” explained the former leader of the Renaissance deputies.
Which had tabled a first bill on the entry of voluntary termination of pregnancy into the text of 1958, at the time when the American Supreme Court left control to States, sometimes conservative, on this question.
“There are very few moments when you have this power
,” she then addressed the senatorial right.
“Abortion not threatened”
Why such pressure?
Since the declarations of the President of the Senate Gérard Larcher and the boss of senators LR Bruno Retailleau, the executive has been feverish.
Stressing last week that
“abortion was not threatened in our country”
, the elected official from Yvelines did not want the Constitution to become a
“catalogue of social and societal rights”
.
In an interview given to Le
Figaro
a few days ago, the senator from Vendée also affirmed that
“as it stands, there could be no vote in accordance with the government's version from the LR senators.”
“‘Guaranteed freedom’ is a right.
What was voted on in the Senate is a simple “freedom”,”
he proclaimed.
While these positions are not necessarily unanimous among the LR troops, Aurore Bergé made a point, Thursday evening, of driving a wedge into their divisions, by sending them a message.
“Don’t take the risk of finding yourself in a situation where other majorities, in 10, 15 or 20 years, will want to erase abortion with the stroke of a pen
,” she thundered.
“Maybe the text is not perfect
,” she admitted.
But the government, according to the minister,
“worked it so that it was a compromise.”
“There is a historic step to take”
for
“our mothers and our daughters”.
Simply
“at the press of a button.”