One of the main unions in France fears that the Government will resort to article 49.3 to approve the reform by “decree”
March 12 () –
The general secretary of the French Democratic Confederation of Labor — one of the main unions in the country, with more than 600,000 members –, Laurent Berger, has declared his dismay at the procedure used by the French government to approve the reform in the Senate of pensions and only hours after hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets of the country to protest the measure.
The Government’s plan, it should be remembered, proposes raising the official retirement age from 62 to 64 years, extending the years of contribution necessary to receive the maximum pension and eliminating the specific regimes that exist today for certain sectors.
The vote this Saturday took place after the Labor Minister, Olivier Dassault, invoked article 44.3 of the Constitution, which allows voting in the Senate after a debate without a vote in the lower house, the National Assembly, on the thousands of amendments presented by the leftist party La Francia Insumisa.
“We are going to say things as they are: this debate has not taken place in the National Assembly and has been accelerated in the Senate, a place where texts are closed in a relaxed atmosphere,” Berger lamented to the ‘Journal du Dimanche’ in his first interview after the approval of the reform.
The reform is not yet law: a final draft of a committee on a final text that must be approved by the Senate and the National Assembly is pending, but what happened last night has unleashed fear among the unions that the French government could end up using another constitutional article, 49.3, even more controversial, to directly achieve the entry into force of their pension plans.
“I have always respected democratic tools and it must be recognized that (the use of this article) would not be illegal, but I really cannot believe that this text is going to be approved without a single vote in Parliament,” Berger lamented. . “It seems to me an example of flawed democracy, which would have an enormous impact on the lives of tens of thousands of people. The imposition of 49.3 would be dangerous,” he declared.
Berger will begin new consultations with the rest of the unions in the coming days and has recalled that next week thousands of people will once again stage rallies throughout the country, particularly on Wednesday, when another great day of mobilizations will arrive.
