It is a date that the New Popular Front (NFP) marked with a “ light » Anxiety: On October 31, during its parliamentary niche, the National Rally (RN) group in the National Assembly will present a bill to abolish the pension reform adopted under the government of Elisabeth Borne and to reinstate a full rate for the forty-two annuities.
A dangerous dilemma: should we stick to a principled position and not vote for any bill coming out of the RN? Or support a repeal promised by the NFP, demanded, in particular, by people on the left, who had unleashed a large-scale social movement in 2023, at the risk of continuing the enterprise of demonisation and trivialisation of the far-right party? With a postscript associated with this second option: voting with the RN means authorising it to take up the torch of a struggle that it did not support either in the National Assembly or in the streets.
As feared, the question of conscience has not yet been resolved by all members of the alliance. Only the Socialist Party (PS) decided its position on Tuesday, September 24: it will not vote for the RN text, while “The RN procrastinated throughout the legislative campaign on this issue, [le président du mouvement] Jordan Bardella suggests retiring at 66”But the Rose Party is not saying it will vote against it. “It has not yet been arbitrated. There is also the possibility of not participating in the vote”specifies the Calvados MP Arthur Delaporte.
Marine Le Pen immediately reacted to the decision of the PS, judging that “The French, who mobilized en masse for the repeal of a socially unjust and economically useless reform, are once again held hostage by the sectarianism, duplicity and insincerity of a left that has repeated the stab in the back of French workers.”.
“RN media trick”
Hoping to take the RN by surprise, the PS will propose “This reform will be repealed in October during the review of the Social Security budget”which occurs before the RN niche. A complex and uncertain procedure. “This decision reconciles our desire to repeal a reform that is a strong marker for our electorate, with the maintenance of a long-standing principled position of maintaining a cordon sanitaire around the RN”analyses Laurent Baumel, MP (PS) for Indre-et-Loire.
The other NFP partners are still tormented by a crucial question. “We have not decided our positionadmits Stéphane Peu, communist deputy for Seine-Saint-Denis. Because we see the disadvantage: crediting RN with a social victory. But I also want to be able to look my voters in the face. And what matters to them, above all, is the repeal of the pension reform, as quickly as possible…”
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