Monday, March 20, 2023

French gov’t survives no-confidence votes over pension reform


Lawmakers table two motions to protest against President Macron’s decision to bypass parliament to raise the retirement age.
Far-left lawmakers hold papers reading, '64 years. It is no,' 'Appointment in the street' and 'We are continuing,' at the National Assembly in Paris [Lewis Joly/AP Photo]
Published On 20 Mar 2023

The French government has narrowly survived two votes of no-confidence in parliament after President Emmanuel Macron pushed through a pension reform that was met with fierce opposition from workers and some politicians.

The motions on Monday were tabled by lawmakers who were infuriated by Macron’s decision last week to bypass parliament and raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 by using special constitutional powers.

A first multiparty motion was rejected by nine votes while the 577-seat National Assembly overwhelmingly rejected a second motion brought by the far right. With the failure of both votes, the pension change is considered adopted. It will now go to the Constitutional Court for review and could become law in the coming days.

The tight result in the first vote led some left-wing lawmakers to immediately call for Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne to resign.

“Only nine votes are missing … to bring both the government down and its reform down,” hard-left lawmaker Mathilde Panot said. “The government is already dead in the eyes of the French. It doesn’t have any legitimacy anymore.”

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen said her group would file a request for the Constitutional Council to examine the bill on Tuesday and possibly censure it.

Macron says the pension reform is needed to keep the system from diving into deficit as France’s population ages.

But critics of the reform disagree, saying it places an unfair burden on low earners, women and people doing physically demanding jobs. Opinion polls have consistently shown that two-thirds of French people oppose the changes.

Opposition to the bill has reverberated on the streets. French workers have been protesting for weeks and have pledged to continue to ramp up pressure on the government and eventually push it to scrap the law.

“The political battle is not over,” Al Jazeera’s Natacha Butler said.

“There is a lot of frustration among some people who feel that the government is out of touch with the concerns, and there is very much a feeling in the air, … a sense of social unrest and unease with the government,” Butler said.

She noted that the mood resembled the atmosphere of a wave of protests that began in late 2018. Back then, the so-called Yellow Vests, demonstrators known by the safety vests they wore, rallied against a plan to increase fuel taxes, which was subsequently retracted, as well as other policies sought by Macron, the rising cost of living and economic inequalities.

In Paris, rubbish is reeking as it piles ever higher on the 15th day of a strike by collectors. The three main incinerators serving the French capital have been mostly blocked as has a garbage sorting centre northwest of Paris. Some refineries that supply petrol stations also are at least partially blocked.

On Monday, hundreds of mainly young protesters gathered at Les Invalides, the final resting place of Napoleon, to demonstrate against pension reform. Some rubbish bins were set on fire, but the protest was otherwise calm. Participants listened to the proceedings in the National Assembly through a channel broadcast on loudspeakers from a union van.

“The goal is to support the workers on strike in Paris, … to put pressure on this government, which wants to pass this unjust, brutal and useless and ineffective law,” said Kamel Brahmi, of the leftist CGT union, speaking to workers with a bullhorn at the Romainville sorting plant.

Unions are demanding that the government withdraw the pension changes and have called for new nationwide protests on Thursday.

Political expert Francoise Gere from the French Strategic Analysis Institute said France is facing a “dangerous political and social crisis”.

“It’s the beginning of a new form of political crisis, a combination of more frequent street demonstrations and strikes, which hurt more and more the economy of the country, combined with a government which cannot rely on a strong political majority,” Gere told Al Jazeera, warning that a deep and serious crisis is unfolding.

“The important issue here is that this government is no longer credible,” Gere said. “There is a crisis of legitimacy, and Macron will have to address this situation.”

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

Macron's government narrowly survives no-confidence vote on pension reform

Protests against raising retirement age to 64 expected to continue

Thomson Reuters · 
Politicians hold up signs protesting a pension bill.
Far-left legislators hold signs, including some reading '64 years. It is no' and 'meeting in the street,' at the National Assembly in Paris on Monday. (Lewis Joly/The Associated Press)

President Emmanuel Macron's government narrowly survived a no-confidence motion in the National Assembly on Monday, after bypassing the lower house to push through a deeply unpopular change to the pension system.\

Some 278 MPs voted in favour of a tripartisan, no-confidence motion tabled by a centrist party and others, just nine short of the 287 needed for it to succeed.

A second motion of no-confidence, tabled by the far-right National Rally (RN), had no chance of going through later on Monday as other opposition parties said they would not vote for it.

A successful no-confidence vote would have sunk the government and killed the legislation, which is set to raise the retirement age by two years to 64.

The outcome will be a relief to Macron, but he still faces significant headwinds.

For one thing, the centrist president's failure to find enough support in parliament to put his pension reform to a vote has undermined his reformist agenda and weakened his leadership.

Several police officers in vests and helmets are shown patrolling streets, with buildings shown in the background.
Police block the access of the bridge in front of the National Assembly in Paris during debates and votes on two motions of no-confidence against the French government. (Yves Herman/Reuters)

Barclays analysts said the government would remain in place, "although it would be significantly weakened, while social protests against the reform would likely continue for some weeks, which could negatively affect the French economy."

Unions and protesters, angry with the reform and with the fact that the pension reform was adopted without a vote, said they would carry on with strikes and protests.

"We'll meet again on Thursday," Helene Mayans, of the hard-left CGT union, said at a rally in Paris.

Violent unrest has erupted across the country and trade unions have promised to intensify their strike action, leaving Macron to face the most dangerous challenge to his authority since the yellow vest uprising over four years ago.

A defaced cardboard cutout of a politician in a suit is shown.
An effigy of French President Emmanuel Macron is held up near a fire during a demonstration on Place de la Concorde in Paris on Friday, the day after the French government pushed its pension reform plan using a constitutional measure. (Geoffroy Van Der Hasselt/AFP/Getty Images)

A ninth nationwide day of strikes and protests is scheduled on Thursday.

Opposition parties will also challenge the bill in the Constitutional Council, which could decide to strike down some or all of it — if it considers it breaches the constitution.

Strikes could affect diesel supply

Shipments of refined products from French refinery and depots were blocked on Monday by a 13th day of strike action, though some refineries operated with a reduced flow.

There is an increasing expectation of diesel supply shortages in France and Europe as a result of the strike-caused outages, which are weighing on North Sea and Nigerian crude prices and lifting the spot price of diesel higher than the forward price, traders said.

Piles of garbage bags are shown on a brick road in an urban setting.
Bags and bins are shown piled in Paris on Monday as waste collectors have been on strike to protest against pension reforms. (Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images)

Garbage in Paris is piling ever higher and reeking of rotting food on the 15th day of a strike by collectors.

The three main incinerators serving the French capital have been mostly blocked, as has a garbage sorting centre northwest of Paris.

With files from The Associated Press

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