The spotlight has been on the National Assembly in recent days, but the Senate has highlighted budget issues. The senators of the Social Affairs Committee proposed this Saturday, November 15 to return to various measures voted in the National Assembly regarding the Social Security budget, including very sensitive measures. “suspension” Borne reforms.
This initial stage allows senators from the right and center, who make up the majority in the Upper House, to determine their intentions with a view to examining the text in a public session, scheduled for Wednesday.
Not surprisingly, a majority of senators wanted to show their disagreement with the bill’s main policy: the “suspension” until January 2028 the pension reform raised the official retirement age to 64 years. Given by Sébastien Lecornu to the socialists, it was largely removed by senators on the committee, according to some participants.
“This is Perlimpinpin powder”lamented Les Républicains Senator Pascale Gruny in committee, noting the fact that the funding of the measure would be based on “in retirees itself.” “The Senate cannot deny the reforms it has supported for years”assumes centrist general rapporteur Elisabeth Doineau.
Left groups strongly criticized this decision. “The majority of senators puts itself in a position to reject any agreement and compromise”regretted the senator from Paris and member of the socialist group Bernard Jomier. He was worried about “very clear stiffening” from the right wing and center.
“When we destroy in one Chamber of Parliament everything that has been done in the other Chamber of Parliament, that is not a construction process.”protests ecologist Anne Souyris. However, this restoration in no way detracts from the debate on this text, which will continue through Parliament until early December.
Senators will start again on Wednesday from the text sent to them, namely from the version amended in recent days by deputies before debate was interrupted. Therefore, all amendments approved by the committee on Saturday must be submitted to the full Senate for another vote.
But differences of opinion with the deputies promise a lot. This Saturday, senators proposed in committee a freeze in social benefits in 2026, which are usually indexed to inflation. The National Assembly has largely scrapped the regulations during its overhaul.
A pension freeze, also scrapped by deputies, was also reintroduced in committee, even if senators voted, at this stage, to keep pensions below 1,400 euros, according to some participants.
So many unpopular measures the Senate says it is ready to take, in the name of restoring Social Security accounts. “Our ambition is to clean up everything that appears to be aberrant in terms of new levies and an increase in the deficit, in order to stay on track for a deficit of 17.5 billion euros” Social Security, believes centrist Olivier Henno.
The work of the Senate Social Affairs Committee has even resulted, at this stage, in reducing the Social Security deficit to 15.1 billion euros, according to the rapporteurs’ presentation. The target of 17.5 billion initially set by the government has been largely exceeded after the bill was passed by the Assembly. According to the Minister of Labor, Jean-Pierre Farandou, the deficit is more than 24 billion euros, an estimate shared by the National Assembly and Senate.
Several dozen amendments removing measures added by the Lower House were adopted this Saturday morning, showing the Senate’s vote on a copy of the Social Security budget was quite close to the administration’s initial proposal.
Senators on the committee also opposed another measure won by the socialist deputies: an increase in the CSG imposed specifically on capital income (dividends, employee savings, housing savings plans, etc.), which would raise 2.8 billion euros by 2026.
