Emmanuel Macron’s government survives vote of no confidence amid pension reform debate

French MPs remained on Monday at the gates of the overthrow of Prime Minister Elisabeth Bourne’s government and her unpopular pension reform, which was decreed to fuel protests meant to continue.

liberal president Emmanuel Macron he succeeded in getting his project to tighten access to full pensions finally approved, but his prime minister’s government was weakened in the fight.

“Only nine votes were not enough to overthrow this government and its reform, a government that is already dead to the French and that no longer has any legitimacy,” said Mathilde Pano, a left-wing radical.

The vote in the National Assembly (lower house) was tighter than expected. The independent LIOT group’s proposal received 278 votes out of the required 287. The one represented by the extreme right got 94.

The fall in proposals ends a parliamentary reform epic that pushes back the retirement age from 62 to 64 by 2030 and requires 43 years (rather than 42) to be delayed from 2027 to receive a full pension.

However, the political opposition does not give up. It has already announced calls for the Constitutional Council to cease its application, and to promote a referendum.

“The street will make a difference”

Unions have also called for a new day of mass demonstrations next Thursday as the opposition settles in the country amid spontaneous protests and extended strikes in key sectors.

Highways blocked, traffic disrupted, Tarbes-Lourdes airport (south) captured, thousands of tons of rubbish on the streets of Paris, fuel shortages in the southeast… Strikers multiplied the protests.

“The street will matter. Contrary to what the authorities think, the street will decide in the end,” said Odile Agrafeil, a pensioner from the banking sector, during a protest in Strasbourg (northeast) on Monday evening.

After learning about the failure of two votes of no confidence, protests against the reform resumed on the streets of Paris and other cities, which have become more violent in recent days, with clashes with police, burning trash or smashing shop windows. .

The trigger for these protests was the decision Macron According to the polls, on Thursday to accept his draft by his decree, fearing defeat in parliament, in the context of the rejection of the union and two to every three Frenchmen.

The unions have warned of a radicalization of the protests beyond their control unless the government backs down after registering the biggest anti-social reform demonstrations in three decades.

Bourne, “decided to continue”

The president, unaffected by the no-confidence vote, risks being able to run the program for his second term until 2027. On Sunday, through his entourage, he assured that he would go with his pension project to the end.

But observers calculated that the government would win a Pyrrhic victory. The use of 49.3 “would make future reforms more difficult to pass,” rating agency Moody’s, which backs the type of law, warned.

All eyes are on what will happen to his prime minister, who on Monday already said he “decided to proceed with the necessary changes”, in a statement to AFP.

19 out of 61 deputies from the right-wing opposition group Los Republicanos (LR) voted for his overthrow, with whom the government usually achieves the majority needed for its laws.

“It is clear that today the government has a problem with legitimacy and that the president cannot become a spectator,” Aurélien Pradier, a prominent leader of this opposition in the Republic of Lithuania, told BFMTV.

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen, rival Macron in the 2022 presidential runoff and whose party would emerge stronger as a result of social conflict in the polls, he also called for Bourne to be fired or gone.

The president plans to meet Tuesday with his prime minister and several ministers, before speaking to the heads of the National Assembly and Senate and addressing pro-government parliamentarians.

A few days ago, Macron threatened to dissolve the Assembly if his reforms failed.

(According to AFP)