Shortly after 3 p.m., in a hemicycle under tension, Elisabeth Borne engaged, this Thursday, March 16, the responsibility of her government by using article 49.3 of the Constitution to adopt the pension reform without submitting it to the vote of the deputies.
While the opposition deputies were singing La Marseillaise and the LFI deputies were waving signs “64 years old, it’s no”, Elisabeth Borne spoke at the Assembly gallery. “Yesterday the joint joint committee, made up of deputies and senators of all sensitivities and where government support is not in the majority, built a compromise. This compromise is not the government’s project, it is the text of the Parliament. It’s yours.”
Elisabeth Borne justified her recourse to article 49.3 of the Constitution. “Today, on the text of the Parliament, uncertainty hangs over a few votes. We cannot take the risk of seeing 175 hours of parliamentary debate collapse. We cannot take the risk of seeing the compromise built by both Houses, dismissed.” After deliberation by the Council of Ministers, the Prime Minister therefore engaged the responsibility of her government before the National Assembly on the vote of the compromise found on the pension reform.
The opposition reacted widely following this statement. In the ranks of the majority, some are also disappointed. “We should have gone to the vote. I oscillate between disappointment and anger after this 49.3. We owed that to our opposition, to those who until then have expressed their disagreement with the reform, always in calm and dignity. Defeat or victory in the vote, democracy would have spoken”, declared the deputy Renaissance of Côtes-d’Armor Éric Bothorel on Twitter, reports BFMTV.
While a spontaneous demonstration is organized on the Place de la Concorde in Paris, in front of the National Assembly, everyone is wondering about the sequence of events. What could happen in the next few hours and days?