The French Prime Minister, Élisabeth Borne, assured this Sunday that she is willing to negotiate with the unions on measures derived from the pension reform adopted and that has generated great social discontent and strong protests in the country, at the same time that she assured that will seek agreements with other parties.
After several days of strike and demonstrations that ended with violent acts and hundreds of injuries and arrests, the head of the Executive made a gesture in favor of a return to calm, on the eve of a new day of mobilization scheduled for this Tuesday, the tenth against the reform that delays two years, until 64, the minimum retirement age.
“We have to calm the situation,” Borne said in an interview with the AFP agency, in which he noted that he has “a road map” to address the remainder of the legislature.
With the unions, the head of the Government was willing to address issues derived from the pension reform, such as professional retraining or the situation of seniors, but assured that, contrary to what the union leaders claim, the law “ must be enacted.”
The text, definitively adopted last Monday without a parliamentary vote and after the rejection of a motion of no confidence by only nine votes, now has to be endorsed by the Constitutional Council, before the president, Emmanuel Macron, can promulgate it.
The prime minister insisted that they will seek, from now on, that the labor reforms be agreed between the unions and the employer before legislating.
Borne assured that he will negotiate with political groups to avoid having to resort to the constitutional mechanism for adopting legislative initiatives without a vote, as he had to do with the pension reform.
In this sense, he indicated that he will work “with all those who want to compromise on issues in a cross-partisan manner” with the aim that “each text has a majority” in parliament.
Something that does not seem easy with the current constitution of the National Assembly, where the Executive does not have a majority and is directly opposed by the two main opposition groups, the left and the extreme right.
Only the traditional conservatives seem open to agreeing with the government, but in the pension reform they have already shown division, which makes them an uncertain ally.
In this sense, Borne indicated that in the coming months they will legislate on “less complex issues”, for which she was “convinced that agreements can be found”. She also assured that on the 3rd she will receive the leaders of the different political groups to seek those agreements.
The head of government has an appointment this Monday with President Macron, who will also receive the leaders of the parties that support him in Parliament, on the eve of a new day of mobilization and strikes.
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