After the examination of the Social Security financing bill in the National Assembly, where the deputies had not reached its conclusion within the scheduled period, an unprecedented situation occurred during the Vmy Republic, the Senate began examining the text on Monday, November 19.
Due to the lack of voting on the text in the Borbón Palace, the senators debate the Government’s initial text. Although more than 800 amendments have been submitted, the PLFSS exam will continue until Friday or Saturday. First positive sign for the Government in a Senate: two motions to previously reject the text were rejected, each of them with less than 100 votes out of 348.
The Prime Minister, Michel Barnier, who aims to save 15 billion euros in the Social Security budget, in theory has clear support in the Senate, dominated by the Republicans and their centrist allies. “We must be careful and show courage. It will surely be painful, but the worst thing would be not having the will and courage to make proposals that are up to the challenges.”said Elisabeth Doineau, rapporteur (UDI) of the text in the Senate.
In fact, several measures are being debated, such as the reduction of company contributions or the postponement of the indexation of pensions to inflation. On this first issue, the government proposes to limit and distribute these exemptions differently, particularly for wages at the minimum wage level. The executive, who initially wanted to withdraw 4,000 million euros from this measure, finally proposed on Sunday to reduce the requested effort by half, up to 2,000 million euros. The Senate proposed in committee an intermediate path, estimated at 3,000 million euros, which would imply a rebalancing in favor of reductions in salaries close to the minimum wage.
The left denounces “an austerity budget”
As for pensions, the issue was almost resolved by an agreement between the right and the government to increase all pensions to half inflation on January 1.Ahem January, before a supplement for smaller pensions on 1Ahem July.
The device, which is supposed to raise around 3.5 billion euros, must still be adopted in a public session, where the left will denounce a “scam”. “The government without a majority in the Assembly can count on its supporters here to do the dirty work”Senator (PCF) Cathy Abourceau-Poly lamented on Monday, who harshly criticized “an austerity budget in which two-thirds of the savings go to those with social security”.
The debates in the Senate will also put back on the table the criticized proposal to create a second day of solidarity for the benefit of older people in the form of a package of seven “solidarity hours” annual – a measure supported by the president of the Senate, Gérard Larcher (LR), and, more broadly, the issue of working time, a strong indicator of the right. In terms of prevention, senators should agree to increase taxes on sugary drinks, tobacco and gambling. And discussions promise to be lively about learning aid or work stoppages. Will the final text continue to be compatible with the government project? In any case, the solemn vote scheduled for November 26 will say a lot about the unity of the Barnier camp.
