More than 4.700 amendments, battle of procedures, verbal contests... The 110 hours of discussion planned, that is to say a third more than at the Palais Bourbon in February according to the right, will they make it possible to reach the final vote before the March 12 midnight gong?
In any case, this is the wish expressed on Wednesday by President Gérard Larcher: "the Senate owes citizens and social partners a debate on the entire text".
Deprived of a vote of the deputies, the executive counts on the Senate to confer democratic legitimacy on a reform which two thirds of the French (66%) do not want, according to an Odoxa poll.
The exchanges will be organized around the strategic March 7, the date of the "blocking" of the country to which the inter-union calls against the decline in the retirement age to 64 years. All the unions of the SNCF and the RATP in particular want a renewable strike from this date.
This political and social climate is not at all favorable for the government and its majority. Emmanuel Macron's popularity rating fell six points in February to its lowest level in three years, with 32% of French people satisfied with his action, according to an Ipsos poll for Le Point published on Wednesday. That of Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne is also down.
It is the Minister of Labor Olivier Dussopt who will again give voice on Thursday to present the text on behalf of the government, alongside the Minister in charge of Public Accounts Gabriel Attal.
"The government hopes that the debate which is opening in the Senate will allow discussion of each of the provisions of the bill and thus to have an informed debate on all the articles", according to Mr. Dussopt.
"We are here to vote"
The deputies, embroiled in heated debates punctuated by repeated session incidents, were only able to fully examine two of the twenty articles of the text in two weeks.
It is therefore on the text of the government, barely modified, that the senators will floor. Before embarking on the examination on the merits, they will discuss two motions of rejection en bloc presented by the left, then, probably Friday morning, a request for a referendum. All three will surely be pushed back.
But socialists, communists and environmentalists intend to "stand together" to oppose a "cobbled together", "not fair", "not useful" reform.
Contrary to what happened in the Assembly, the senators on the left nevertheless want a vote on article 7, which pushes back the legal age of retirement from 62 to 64 years. "The French must know who votes and who votes what when it comes to their future", defends the boss of the PS group Patrick Kanner.
The left, however, wants the vote on this key article not to take place until the end of the day of mobilization on March 7.
At the risk of being criticized for its proximity to the government, the senatorial majority will do everything to get to the end of the text. "We are here to vote", approves the president of the majority Renaissance RDPI group François Patriat.
The right nevertheless intends to defend its "markers": return to financial balance and family policy. She thus proposes to grant a "surcharge" of pension to mothers who have a full career. A measure amounting to 300 million euros.
"The government has an objective, the senatorial majority, requirements. All of this must coincide", pleaded in Le Figaro Mr. Larcher.
"If we can move forward on family rights with the senatorial majority, I will be the first to be happy," said Mr. Dussopt.
On the other hand, the Minister of Labor definitively closed the door, Thursday on RTL, to the requests of LR senators on special pension schemes, which the government intends to abolish without however touching the "grandfather clause" (which maintains the schemes special benefits to employees who already benefit from them).
The senatorial majority also offers a new CDI formula, exempt from family contributions, to facilitate the hiring of unemployed seniors.
The senators are also expecting clarification from the government in the first place on long careers, a point which has crystallized the debates in the Assembly.
"I want the French to be enlightened, this is one of the roles of Parliament", underlined Gérard Larcher on France 2.