The soap opera is not over yet. La France insoumise (LFI) will table a motion of censure against the government, announced their leader of insoumis deputies, Mathilde Panot. In question, the decision of the President of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, to judge “inadmissible financially” the amendments aimed at repealing the retirement age at 64. These texts had been tabled by Nupes and the Liot group (Freedoms, Independents, Overseas and Territories) after the unraveling of the bill by the majority, last week, in the Social Affairs Committee.
The announcement therefore did not fail to react to the opposition, who had nevertheless tried to convince the tenant of the Perchoir to let the deputies vote. Deprived of the flagship text of their parliamentary niche, the Liot group denounced “an unprecedented attack on the rights of Parliament”, confirming a “denial of democracy”. These independents, led in particular by Charles de Courson, argue: “Under pressure from the executive, the President of the National Assembly has therefore chosen to prevent, for the first time since 1958, the examination of an amendment restoring a provision of an initial text, the admissibility of which had been recognized twice (by the Bureau of the Assembly and by the Chairman of the Finance Committee). It constitutes a questioning of the constant practice of the Constitution”.
An observation shared by the chairman of the Finance Committee, Éric Coquerel, who had himself deemed the proposal of this central training to be “acceptable”. In a press release published in the process, the Insoumis also deplored “a weakening of parliamentary democracy”. “Ultimately, no true democrat will be able to find his account there,” he warned, while Yaël Braun-Pivet neither consulted him nor informed him of his decision. The President of the National Assembly having even judged that Éric Coquerel had “stepped out of his institutional role” by not challenging the repeal text.
The Macronist deputies are “ready for anything. They are pitiful”, added his rebellious colleague, François Ruffin. If she had for a time refused to activate Article 40, Yaël Braun-Pivet “preferred the role of gun-bearer to that of guarantor of the institutions”, castigated the ecologist Sandrine Rousseau. The boss of the socialists, Boris Vallaud, for his part judged the decision “serious”, worrying about the will of the presidential camp “to block” that of the French and the representatives of the people.
The indignation also won the benches of the National Rally (RN), which supported the repeal of the retirement at 64 years. “The majority is afraid of the deputies, afraid of the French, and tramples the rights of Parliament”, reacted the vice-president of the National Assembly, Sébastien Chenu. The presidential camp “used all the subterfuges to prevent the deputies from voting”, added his colleague, Thomas Ménagé. Enough to raise the temperature a notch, on the eve of a session that promises to be stormy.