Macron’s government survives vote of no confidence – but protests against pension reform continue

Paris In the end, it was nine votes that saved French President Emmanuel Macron and his pension reform for the time being. The National Assembly in Paris rejected a motion of no confidence in Macron’s government on Monday evening with a wafer-thin majority. The resistance to the pension law has not yet been broken.

Unions have called for another nationwide day of protests on Thursday. And immediately after the failed vote in the National Assembly, opponents of the reform took to the streets in several French cities. The demonstrations sometimes turned violent.

The left-wing populists of Indomitable France, who lead an alliance with the Socialists and Greens in parliament, called on Macron’s Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne to resign given the close result. “In the eyes of the French, the government no longer has any legitimacy,” said Mathilde Panot, leader of the Unyielding Group.

The right-wing national Rassemblement National said that the wafer-thin rejection of the vote of no confidence would not calm the social climate in the country and would not solve the political crisis. “The French are against the reform by a large majority and will remember this at the next election,” said parliamentary group leader Marine Le Pen.

The pension reform is considered the most important domestic policy project in Macron’s second term. From 2030 onwards, the French should not retire until they are 64 years old. To this end, the retirement age is to be gradually raised from the current 62 years from September 2023.

French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne

The first vote of no confidence against the government in the National Assembly failed.

(Photo: AP)

The government wants to abolish generous early retirement schemes for certain occupational groups. However, particularly long-term employment histories should be taken into account: Anyone who has at least 43 years of contributions can, under certain circumstances, retire earlier without deductions.

>> Also read here: Marine Le Pen benefits from dispute over pension reform

Since January, more than a million demonstrators have taken to the streets in several nationwide protests against the reform. Strikes partially paralyzed public life. The protests have intensified in recent days, and hundreds of people have been arrested during riots.

Since the defeat in the parliamentary elections last summer, Macron’s center alliance has not had its own majority in the National Assembly, the more important of the two chambers of parliament. When it came to the pension reform, the government had actually relied on the support of the conservative-bourgeois Republicans, but resistance was also stirring within their ranks.

Adoption of the reform by special power of attorney

With the majority for the law in the National Assembly shaky, Macron decided to push the controversial law through without a vote from MPs. His Prime Minister Borne referred to a special power of attorney last Thursday.

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since the founding of the Fifth Republic by Charles de Gaulle, a motion of no confidence in a French government has been successful.

Article 49.3 of the Constitution allows the French government, under certain conditions, to legislate without parliamentary consent. After a constitutional reform in 2008, however, this move can only be used for budget laws – and once a year for a different political project.

Macron now drew this joker for the pension reform – and justified this, among other things, with the fact that otherwise the financial and economic stability of the country could be endangered. His opponents, on the other hand, only incited the brutal approach even further. Two motions of no confidence were tabled in Parliament, one by the right-wing Rassemblement National and the other by the small center faction Liot.

Liot Group spokesman Charles de Courson denounced the use of Article 49.3 in the National Assembly on Monday as a “maneuver by the government to circumvent and limit parliamentary debate”. The vote on the initiative of the small center faction was the decisive vote: the left-wing opposition alliance Nupes around the indomitable, which did not want to make common cause with the RN, supported this application from the start.

The Constitutional Council has the last word

In the end, the RN and some Republican MPs also voted for the Liot initiative, which received 278 votes. However, 287 votes would have been needed for success, the absolute majority in the National Assembly. The RN’s own motion was also voted on, but received only 94 votes.

There has not been a clear and honest debate in Parliament. This is a constitutional requirement. Dominique Rousseau, French constitutionalist

Since the founding of the Fifth Republic in France by Charles de Gaulle, only a motion of no confidence in a government has been successful. If the National Assembly had voted in favor of the initiative with an absolute majority on Monday, not only would Macron’s pension reform have been overturned. In this case, Borne’s government would also have had to resign, and the president would probably have ordered the dissolution of the national assemblies and new parliamentary elections.

The law is now considered passed. The hope of the unions is that Macron will give in under pressure from the street. As an example, they cite the planned flexibilization of the labor market under President Jacques Chirac in 2006: In the face of massive protests against weakened protection against dismissal for first-time contracts for young workers, the government at the time withdrew the law.

The opposition also wants to appeal to the Constitutional Council to have the legality of the pension reform reviewed. The outcome of the process is questionable. French constitutionalist Dominique Rousseau told radio station France Info that there could well be doubts about the constitutionality of the law – not about the content, but about the form. “There has not been a clear and honest debate in Parliament. It is a constitutional requirement.”

More: Macron pushes pension reform past Parliament – and risks political crisis

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