On Tuesday evening, the French National Assembly failed to complete its examination of the Social Security budgetThe text will now be sent to the Senate in the government’s initial version, possibly enriched by amendments chosen by the executive.

At the midnight deadline, the debates ended with hundreds of amendments still to be examined on the “expenditure” part of the Social Security Financing Bill (PLFSS), which “weighs” 600 billion euros.

Although deputies approved the bill on Monday, to everyone’s surprise, the “revenue” section – in a version heavily amended by the left – so there was no final vote on the text as a whole within 20 days of its submission by the government, as required by the constitution.

Extension of exchanges refused

The oppositions requested, in vain, that the exchanges be extended overnight, but at midnight the Minister for Relations with Parliament, Nathalie Delattre, refused. An extension could have “reduce the time available for the Senate’s examination”.and encroach on the time allotted to the Assembly for the State budget, she explained.

In the end, the executive will forward its initial version of the text to the Senate, “modified by a certain number of amendments voted by your assembly and which the government will agree to retain”.she concluded.

To the dismay of the opposition, the Assembly did not have time to consider the following issues before this premature end the six-month freeze on retirement pensionsto save four billion euros. This provision had previously been widely rejected by the Social Affairs Committee.

“Contest of slowness

“What a shame!”exclaimed Jean-Philippe Tanguy (RN) a few minutes before midnight, as debates dragged on about the reimbursement of spa treatments. “Fourteen million pensioners are waiting to know what the National Assembly thinks about freezing their pensions, and we’ll have spent ten minutes on a bogus amendment.”he lamented. “You’ve done everything to prevent us from reaching the end of the text”.he shouted at his colleagues from the right and center. It was a “contest of slownessThe president of the Socialist group, Boris Vallaud, also commented to AFP.

Before the final “gong” at midnight, MPs still had time to adopt a series of amendments on Social Security spending. On a proposal from the Socialists, the Assembly maintained the Social Security reimbursement rate for medical consultations at 70%. The government had wanted to lower this rate to 60%, but the left pointed out that this would be detrimental to patients without supplementary health insurance.

The Assembly also approved a measure proposed by the left to de-precarize foreign doctors practicing in France who have graduated outside the European Union. This show of hands was the subject of lengthy and heated exchanges, with elected representatives supporting the government accusing session chair Nadège Abomangoli (LFI) of having misjudged the outcome. The insoumise politician remained firm, however, and refused a second vote.

Other provisions, approved despite having been proposed by the government, are more likely to be retained in the final text. These include a reform of the schedule for preventive oral and dental examinations, which will now be annual for all children from the age of 3, and the generalization of vaccination of schoolchildren against meningitis, coupled with vaccination against papillomavirus (HPV).

With the end of work on the PLFSS, the Assembly will be able to resume debates on Wednesday on the “revenue” part of the State budget, on which a vote is scheduled for Tuesday November 12.