France: the Constitutional Council rejects the request for a referendum on Macron’s controversial pension reform

The Constitutional Council, the highest French judicial institution, The shared initiative referendum was rejected on Wednesday evening, in which the public was to be consulted on pension reform. Doesn’t meet the requirements to consider it, according to the essay. A protest mobilization has been called before the Council tonight, convened by the CGT.

His sentence ratified the pessimism of left-wing lawmakers and trade unionists, who did not believe that the “wise men” would have pronounced themselves in favor of this second presentation, after having initially rejected the proposal of the first referendum.

Now lawmakers want to vote on pension reform, including senators. It will be the first time they have succeeded because the government had appealed the 49.8, a device that requires them to approve legislation without voting for it. A new chapter for President Emmanuel Macron, that it does not receive the political oxygen it needs to carry out the reform, beyond its promulgation.

After the rejection of a first request for a shared initiative referendum, the left once again tried their luck with a second version to bring the retirement age to 62 years.

the legal path

After the express promulgation of the pension reform and a 1 May deemed positive by the unions, the Constitutional Council is expected to announce this Wednesday its decision on a new request for a shared initiative referendum (RIP), almost three weeks after the rejection of a first request.

The shared initiative referendum, envisaged by the Constitution, is a provision that opens up the possibility of organizing a referendum on a bill “at the initiative of a fifth of the Members of Parliament”. That is, at least 185 of the 925 parliamentarians (577 deputies, 348 senators).

In March and then in April, left-wing MPs presented a referendum bill so that “the legal retirement age cannot be set beyond 62”.

The RIP was seen as one of the last opportunities to reverse pension reformas the government was somehow trying to move on.

Macron has recalled on several occasions that it will be applied next September.

The mission of the Constitutional Council is to verify that the referendum meets the criteria set by the legislator. The institution, chaired by former prime minister and chancellor Laurent Fabius, had to confirm that the referendum “refers to the organization of public powers, to reforms related to the nation’s economic or social policy and to the public services that contribute to it” .

The Constitutional Council also had to verify that the RIP “does not aim to repeal a legislative provision promulgated less than a year ago”.

“At the date of enrollment of the amnesty, the bill tends to state that the statutory retirement age cannot be set beyond 62 years it does not imply a change in the rule of law”, indicates the Constitutional Council.

In particular, PIR’s request did not have the “reform” character as required by the Constitution, which led them to reject it. The application, in fact, was presented in March, while the pension reform was only launched on 14 April.

The new version of the referendum

This second RIP was different. In this second version, the left-wing MPs supported the request not to exceed 62 for the legal retirement age. But they added a section on the “tax revenues connected to capital resources to guarantee the financing of the salary”.

“After the analysis, we drafted a text that was strengthened in juridical terms, with financial arguments, to make a real reform proposal,” said Patrick Kanner, head of the PS senators, who originated the presentation of the request.

The Constitutional Council had to determine whether to add a tax resource could be considered a reform.

The maneuver was less simple than it seems: the “Sages” had to decide on the matter only four times. “The problem is that the Constitutional Council creates rules on the fly. So it is difficult to know which side the piece will fall on”, explained the constitutional lawyer Paolo Cassia, after the invalidation of the first version.

If the Constitutional Council deems that the PIR complies with the rules, it would be the beginning of a long journey full of pitfalls. In the first place, it would be necessary for the referendum request to collect the signature of a “tenth of the voters”.. In other words, 4.87 million people in a 9-month period.

During the last RIP against the privatization of Aéroports de Paris, only one million people had signed up. It must be said that the platform for collecting signatures on the Constitutional Council website is relatively complex, with a prior verification of registration in the Single Electoral Registry (REU).

If the 4.8 million mark is reached, the National Assembly and the Senate will have six months to consider the bill and decide whether to approve or reject it. In the absence of a vote from parliamentarians – very unlikely -, the President of the Republic will then have to hold a referendum.

Meanwhile, “the PIR does not freeze the application of the law”, recalls the constitutional lawyer Paolo Cassia. Specifically, Emmanuel Macron could therefore apply the reform next September while the collection of signatures was taking place. But politically, the case seemed untenable.