French MPs to tackle thousands of ammendments to pension bill as debate opens
Lawmakers in the French parliament on Monday started debating the government’s plan to overhaul the pension system, which has angered much of the opposition, and sparked a historic transport strike in the country. The opposition has vowed to block the plan, and has introduced nearly 40,000 amendments to slow down the process.
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The first day of debates concluded before MPs could even start to address the 41,000 amendments, 37,000 of which were introduced by the National Assembly’s three leftist groups, the Socialists, the Communists and the hard-left La France Insoumise (France Unbowed).
France Unbowed party leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon promised to hold strong against the pension reform, which he called “the most terrible social regression of the fifth republic”.
Communist lawmakers, wearing T-shirts that spelled out the word Referendum, tried to table a motion that would ask president Emmanuel Macron to hold a referendum on the reform. It was rejected by a vote of 160 to 70.
Call for legitimacy
“As with all bills, this text generates some opposition,” said the new health minister, Olivier Veran, at the start of Monday’s debates. “Admittedly, there are some disagreements, admittedly, there are some differences of opinion. I call that democracy.”
Veran was a lawmaker himself until Monday, when he took over the ministerial post from Agnes Buzyn, who became the ruling Republic on the Move (LREM) candidate for mayor of Paris.
He defended the government’s plans to reform the pension system, saying the bill “has the legitimacy of a presidential project. It has the legitimacy of a consultation... And I hope it will, in the near future, have a large legitimacy given by lawmakers.”
The bill was reviewed by a parliamentary commission that failed to address all the amendments, so it sent the legislation in its original form written by the government to be debated by the entire body, a situation that has never happened before.
Opposition from the right to the legislation comes from the Les Republicains Party, which has denounced what it calls “amateurism” of the government, notably on financing the pension system.
Financing the system
On Tuesday, in parallel with debates on the text of the law, the government will open talks with trade unions on how to finance the system and balance the budget by 2027. Officials have warned that if no deal is reached, the retirement age will effectively be pushed pack by a few years from 62 currently.
The pension reform has been rejected by unions, which organised a historical six-week long transport strike in December and January. Strikes in other sectors have continued, and polls show a majority of the French public support them, and are critical of the government's handling of the reform.
Several hundred protesters marched on Monday in Paris to mark the start of the debates in parliament, but a call for a metro strike was largely ignored. Unions have called for a general strike on Thursday.
Not enough time for debate
The pension reform legislation will be debated for 84 hours over two weeks in the National Assembly, with the government’s aim for a vote before the municipal elections in March. The bill would then go to the Senate, with the aim to have a final passage of the law by the summer.
The government has a majority in parliament, but some LREM lawmakers have warned that going through all the amendments would take more time than allotted, and if the opposition holds up the vote, the legislation may have to be forced through by executive decree.
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