“We fully protect our pensioners against inflation”, informed Bruno Le Maire from the outset. The Minister of Economy, Finance, Industrial and Digital Sovereignty then responded to the outcome of a very strange misunderstanding that occurred in the National Assembly. The latter has indeed voted for a new revaluation of retirement pensions, as Planet has had the opportunity to explain in the past, due to an amendment carried by the deputy Charles de Courson (Liberties, Independents, Overseas and Territories). Unfortunately for retirees, some might say, the presidential majority tabled a counter-amendment later that evening and was able to get it passed with the help of the Republicans. The latter sought to have the first document annulled.
“Retirement pensions are increased by 5.1% in 2022”, continues the defector from the right on twitter, recalling that they had already been increased by 1.1% in January and that they still have to be increased by 4% in July. It does not specifically address the issue of potential delays in the payment of revalued pensions… But the latter does not necessarily mean that retirees will lose money, the progression of pensions being partially retroactive. And Bruno Le Maire insists, as La Dépêche explains: “If inflation continues to rise, there will be a further increase in pensions in January 2023”.
The amendment initially tabled by Charles de Courson provided, recalls the regional daily, an overall revaluation of pensions estimated at 500 million euros. This was therefore intended to allow retirees to fully preserve their purchasing power from inflation. However, it is clear that the text presented a number of problems. Some have also been singled out by… Bruno Le Maire.
The first point to be noted, according to the defecting minister, concerns the financing of this upgrading. The latter should indeed have been based on the deduction of the necessary sum “from the civil and military retirement pensions of the State”, he thus recalled.
At the end of this strange battle of amendments, some on the left may have suffered bitter defeat. In any case, this is what the Huffington Post says on its site, was the spokesperson for some of the “virulent exchanges and heated debates” that may have taken place in the National Assembly.
Thus, some on the left – as well as on the far right – did not hesitate to scream “treason”, when they did not simply invoke a “denial of democracy”. “I have bad news tonight, here they dared to do it, at 2 a.m. the government canceled the 500 million euros more for pensioners. And LR betrayed”, was indignant for example the deputy Insoumis David Guiraud.
Among the opposition deputies, some preferred to mention the voting conditions observed at the Palais Bourbon. Some parliamentarians even claimed not to have heard the call for the vote and therefore said they had not had the opportunity to speak…
Others, as is the case of the deputy Insoumis Alexis Corbière, have chosen to criticize a “passage in force”, which would not be tenable over the duration of the five-year term. The leader of the New Popular Ecological and Social Union, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, is now wondering about supposed corridor agreements between the presidential majority and the right of government.
