Time.news – He French President Emmanuel Macron’s government today survived two no-confidence motions in Parliament, but still faces intense pressure over the handling of a controversial pension reform. The reform has “completed the democratic path” and has already been signed by the Prime Minister.
Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne inflamed the opposition last week by announcing that the government would impose the controversial reform without a vote in Parliament, sparking allegations of undemocratic behaviour. The use of Article 49.3 of the Constitution allowing for this move also gave the opposition the right to file motions of no confidence in the government, and two such requests have been filed.
© XOSE BOUZAS / HANS LUCAS / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP
French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne
The National Assembly, which has 577 seats, first rejected a motion tabled by the centrist Liot coalition – also supported by the left – by a margin of just nine votes, much lower than expected. Then he overwhelmingly rejected a motion tabled by the far-right Rassemblement National, which polled just 94 votes.
The rejection of the motions means that the reform to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 was approved by the legislaturealthough it has yet to be signed by the president and could be subject to legal challenge. The most serious internal crisis of Macron’s second term has not yet ended and he has not yet publicly commented on the controversy.
“We have never gone so far in building a compromise as with this reform,” Borne said in Parliament ahead of the vote, saying the use of Article 49 to circumvent the vote is “profoundly democratic” under the French constitution , and recalled that its authorship does not go back “to a dictator”, but to the historic post-war leader Charles de Gaulle.
There are 101 people who were arrested in Paris, on the sidelines of the spontaneous demonstrations that took place immediately after the rejection, in the National Assembly, of the two motions of censure by the Borne government, for the pension reform.
The rage of the garbage men
Meanwhile, several cities in France, Paris in the first place, are smelly and invaded by waste, in the 13th day of the garbage collectors’ strikethe longest-standing protest movement – which could still be extended – in the context of the battle of workers from various sectors against the pension reform.
In reality, the conflict ignited by the street cleaners, since last March 7, is not fueled by the government’s bill alone, but it is a question of an anger that returns cyclically in France, concerning salaries, difficult working conditions and the lack of recognition as a member -economic.
Students occupy universities in Paris and Bordeaux
Even the students continued to mobilize with a series of actions ranging from rallies to blockades, with several hundred students of the University of Paris 1 voting to occupy the Tolbiac headquarters. In the afternoon, the student union L’Alternative counted about fifty universities and schools mobilized, with occupations of university buildings to Paris 1 or Montpellier 3-Paul Vale’ry and blocks to Lille 2, Paris 8 or Saint-Etienne.
At the University of Bordeaux-Montaigne, about 300 students gathered in a general assembly on a square voted by a large majority to renew the blockade until tomorrow.