Pension reform: government launches 49.3 and refuses to vote in the Assembly

The end of the unbearable wait. Just 10 minutes before the National Assembly vote on pension reform, the government finally decided to resort to 49.3. Lacking the guarantee of an absolute majority, the count of votes was decided by several votes, the executive power preferred to avoid the vote of deputies.

After two meetings with the majority leaders on Thursday morning, Emmanuel Macron convened a council of ministers at the last moment. Option 49.3 was confirmed shortly after 14:30.

The Prime Minister then came to express this choice before the National Assembly. Elisabeth Bourne, greeted by the noise and the Marseillaise performed by the deputies of La France Insoumise with posters “64 years is not”, officially supported this choice.

“The government was involved in this”

“I am ready to take responsibility for your reform, the text of the parliament, the result of a compromise between the two assemblies,” she announced after several minutes of a speech in which tenant de Matignon praised the work of the government. “We cannot risk that the hours of debate will collapse when the compromise reached by the two Assemblies is postponed (…). This reform is necessary,” she added.

As required by the Constitution, the text will be adopted if no vote of no confidence is brought within 24 hours, that is, by 3:20 pm on Friday. Marine Le Pen has already announced a vote of no confidence by that date. “Using 49.3 is an extreme admission of weakness. (…) We will also vote for all other references submitted by other groups,” the leader of the National Association also confirmed. For his part, LR MP Pierre-Henri Dumont admitted on BFMTV that several LR MPs “very likely” could vote for these censored statements.

According to the majority, the use of 49.3 was necessary. “We were at the end of the exercises. We have too much uncertainty. We will not risk once again putting ourselves in the hands of our political opponents, who nevertheless committed themselves to reform, ”the latter points out to the Parisian.

“The government was involved in this, also admits Eric Werth, a Renaissance MP, referring to the use of 49.3. LR basically decided not to vote for this reform. But the worst thing would be if this reform did not take place,” he admits to us. 49.3, “this is the application of the democratic rules of our country,” he continued.