“Dear colleagues, what are we going to do today? » Many deputies searched for the meaning of the debates on Thursday, October 31. At the legislative level: none. They dedicated a good part of their day to debating abstruse articles and amendments, related to hypothetical reports on pensions and which fell – even before being voted on – into oblivion by the National Assembly. The fault lies with the National Group (RN), which, owner of the agenda on the occasion of its annual parliamentary niche, had chosen to keep a bill (PPL) on the program to repeal the latest pension reform, but emptied of substance after its approval in committee.
The extreme right preferred to sacrifice more than five hours of this day to useless exchanges rather than admit defeat to the left. “The parliamentary niche is a parallel world for the French, it only interests politicians and journalistsjustified, the day before, Jean-Philippe Tanguy, vice president of the RN group. This day is above all a matter of show: we refuse to abandon the idea that social issues would be secondary for us, to let the newspapers headline that we renounce pension reform. » So his party allowed discussions on a devitalized text to drag on. and the operation “revelation” of the “sociotraitors” promised by the frontistas became the staging of a formation embittered by its impotence.
The bitterness of the RN lives up to the hopes founded for weeks by the October 31 movement. With the largest group in the Assembly (125 members), and therefore the first parliamentary niche in the legislature, the former National Front intended to take pensions by surprise to a left caught in the dilemma between a historic concession to the extreme right or the renunciation of a fundamental right. promise. The communication artillery was ready: a website was created for voters to write to parliamentarians guilty of denying their convictions; elected officials who would then be the subject of leaflets (with name and photograph) that would be distributed in their constituency. The only thing missing was the vote on the complicated text.
“Thug methods!” »
The. By abstaining from the Social Affairs Commission, many left-wing elected officials allowed the center and right to eliminate the main provisions of the PPL, whose reintroduction through amendments was rejected by the (renaissance) president of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun. -Pivet. “They thought we were going to give up.”reflects Thomas Ménage, rapporteur (RN) of the amputated text. We were willing to do anything to avoid giving the impression of throwing in the towel. »
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