Saturday, March 18, 2023

Protests resume across France after Macron forced through contested pension reform

Issued on: 18/03/2023

01:27

People took to the streets across France on Saturday after President Emmanuel Macron imposed an unpopular pension overhaul without a parliament vote.


Violence erupts at French pension protests for 3rd night

DW
5 hours ago

Authorities banned protests near the National Assembly building in Paris over plans to raise the retirement age. A location change failed to stop angry demonstrators from facing off with riot police.

Violence broke out between protesters and security forces for a third night in central Paris on Saturday over the government's decision to abandon a parliamentary vote on unpopular pension reforms.

President Emmanuel Macron's overhaul will raise the standard retirement age by two years to 64, which he says is essential to ensure the system does not go bust.

After ministers approved the plan by decree on Thursday, bypassing the lower house of parliament, rival opposition parties filed two separate no-confidence motions, which are due to be debated on Monday afternoon. They are expected to fail.

What happened on Saturday?

Police said around 4,000 people gathered in Place d'Italie after being banned from demonstrating close to the National Assembly building due to angry clashes on previous nights.

The ban was ordered because of "serious risks of disturbances to public order."

Le Monde newspaper said a group of protesters started trash fires, broke class on billboards and bus shelters and thew barriers, used to block streets, at police.



The paper said 73 people were arrested and just as on previous nights, riot police used tear gas and water cannon to disperse the crowd.

Earlier Saturday, dozens of students and activists marched through Paris' Forum des Halles shopping mall, chanting loudly and letting off red smoke.

Violence was also reported in the southeastern city of Lyon for a second night when small groups confronted police several times, prompting a response that included tear gas.

On Friday, more than 30 people were detained after a group of demonstrators tried to break into a town hall and set fire to the building.




Mostly peaceful marches took place in several other French cities, including Marseille, Montpellier and Nantes — where one placard read "Death to the king," seemingly in reference to Macron.
Workers continued protests in several cities over the government's handling of pension reforms
STEPHANE MAHE/REUTERS

What next for the protest movement?

A broad alliance of France's main unions has said it would continue to mobilize members to try to force a U-turn on the pension changes.

Some unions ordered workers to continue their rolling strikes, severely affecting high-speed and regional rail services this weekend, among other services.

Paris' municipal rubbish collectors have kept up their action, and by Friday an estimated 10,000 tons of trash were left festering in the streets.

Some French airports will see almost a third of flights canceled on Monday as a result of walkouts, union leaders predicted.

The CGT union said its members had shut down the TotalEnergies oil refinery in Normandy on Friday evening. A similar blockade of a refinery in southern France began earlier in the day.

A day of nationwide industrial action is also scheduled for Thursday — the ninth since mid-January.



Public hostility not enough to quash plans


Opposition to the pension reform was already high, with two-thirds of the French population against the plan, according to polls.

But the sudden move to avoid a parliamentary vote, invoking the controversial article 49.3 of the constitution, caused not only public outrage but also criticism among the political class.


In parliament next week, opposition lawmakers hope to garner enough support to topple the cabinet in the no-confidence votes and repeal the law.

But Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne's cabinet is largely expected to survive.

The motion would need backing from around half the group of opposition right-wing Republicans, a scenario seen as highly improbable. They would also need the shared support of the powerful extreme left and extreme right factions in the National Assembly.

Macron put the pension reforms at the center of his re-election campaign last year.


While his government argued France needed to fall in line with its European neighbors where the retirement age is typically higher, critics say the changes are unfair to people who work from a young age in physically tough jobs and women who interrupt their careers to raise children.

The unrest is reminiscent of the Yellow Vest protests which erupted in late 2018 over high fuel prices, which forced Macron into a partial U-turn on a carbon tax.

Macron had also planned pension reforms for his first term as president but had to row back on the idea, campaigning last year on a pledge to finish the job.

mm/msh (AFP, AP, Reuters)


FRIDAY


France: Pension reform spells crisis for Macron

Lisa Louis in Paris
03/17/2023
March 17, 2023

French President Emmanuel Macron is trying to push through a pension reform without a parliamentary vote. That has triggered a political crisis ― and could help the far right.

It was an extraordinary scene that epitomized the political storm France has walked into.

As Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne was making her way to the National Assembly's podium Thursday afternoon, lawmakers from the opposition stood up, chanting the Marseillaise and holding signs saying "no to 64 years" and "democracy."

The Assembly's president interrupted the session for things to calm down.

But when Borne took the floor a few minutes later, she still had to drown out the parliamentarians' boos.

"Based on article 49.3 of the constitution, I engage the government's responsibility," she yelled, announcing that a controversial pension reform increasing France's minimum retirement age from 62 to 64 years would be pushed through without a vote in the lower house of parliament.

"No to 64 years!" Prime Minister Borne was faced with protest from parliamentarians as she announced the pension reform
PASCAL ROSSIGNOL/REUTERS

'Something's not right in the French political system'


Paragraph 3 of Article 49 allows the prime minister to act unilaterally. The only way to stop a bill that was passed under this rule would be to bring down the government.

"What happened was absolutely unheard of ― it was terrible to see how the National Assembly went completely crazy," Bruno Cautres from Paris-based think tank Centre for Political Research told DW.

Headwinds against what was by many perceived as an authoritarian move were also blowing outside the parliament, following weeks of protests against the pension reform.

Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Paris and other cities across the country, some of them staying late into the night and clashing with riot police. Further protests are expected over the weekend.

"This highlights that something's not right in the French political system ― we can see that in our regular polls, which show that people want a more participative democracy where unions and civil society are involved in the elaboration of legal texts," Cautres said.

Opposition parties have filed two no-confidence motions that will be put to the vote on Monday.

Will the government to survive the no-confidence vote?


The French government has received the support of the leaders of the conservative Republicans. Their 60 votes would give President Emmanuel Macron's minority coalition the needed majority to fend off the no-confidence votes.

And yet, the same leaders had already pledged their party's backing for the pension reform. But not enough Republicans agreed to follow that lead, which is why President Macron deemed a parliamentary majority for his reform unlikely and decided to trigger the 49.3.

Vincent Martigny, a professor for political science at Nice University and Paris-based Ecole Polytechnique, thinks the move has plunged France into a political crisis that is here to stay, at least in the medium term.

While President Macron's job is not directly threatened, running the country seems set become a headache.


Government is 'fatally injured'

"The government in its current form is fatally injured, just like during a corrida, a bullfight," Martigny said to DW, adding that PM Borne would almost certainly have to step down.

"If one of the no-confidence votes gets through, the government will fall and the president is likely to dissolve the National Assembly," Martigny said.

"If the government survives the vote, Macron can either withdraw the reform, which seems highly unlikely, or stick to it, which will spark a social crisis with consequences unknown that could include snap parliamentary elections," he added.

The president, meanwhile, argues France needs the reform to maintain its financial credibility on international markets, where it refinances its debt that stands at about 110 percent of France's GDP.

"I consider that the financial and economic risks [of not carrying out the reform] are too big," Macron said in front of the cabinet on Thursday, as per a statement from his office.

"But as opposed to people in countries like Germany, the French don't care about public debt – for them, it's a side issue," Martigny underlined.

Macron's path ahead is unclear after he pushed through his unpopular pension reform
STEPHANE MAHE/AFP


A country with 'welfare nationalism'


The pension system, by contrast, lies at the heart of their concerns.

"The French practice what I'd call welfare nationalism ― they are very attached to their system of redistribution and consider it as a crucial part of their identity," Martigny said.

He added that even in politically stable times, it was a challenge to carry out welfare reforms in France.

"But we are in dire economic times with a war in Ukraine and rising inflation. On top of that, Macron has hardly negotiated with the unions and wants to push the reform through by force," Martigny said. "All this is causing a huge uproar."


Is there a way out of the political crisis?


Cautres from the Centre for Political Research thinks the only way for Macron to get back into calmer political waters in the medium term is to reach a majority in parliament.

"Either he forms a stable coalition agreement with the Republicans or he dissolves the National Assembly hoping for a better result in the subsequent parliamentary elections," the expert said.

But Benjamin Morel, a political analyst and lecturer for public law at University Paris 2 Panthéon-Assas, doubts these strategies will work.

"The Republicans are not reliable partners ― they seem to be a group of free electrons without much party discipline," he told DW.

And snap parliamentary elections could harbor another risk.

"The far right is likely to gain ground, as it has managed to build up a respectable image during the debates in parliament while being against the reform and on the side of the people. And democratic fatigue, as we are seeing it now, often leads to either abstention or a vote for the extremes," Morel said.

Edited by: Carla Bleiker

Paris drowns in garbage amid strikes

Several unions are on strike to protest a pension reform, with garbage collectors among those to walk out. Now, streets are filling up with garbage and its stench. The strike is expected to last at least until Monday.
Image: Stevens Tomas/ABACA/dpa/picture alliance

Weeks of protest in France
For weeks, hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets across France to protest against the government's planned pension reform. On Wednesday, too, people gathered for protest marches in the course of the afternoon — as here in Paris. Nationwide, police expect slightly fewer participants than last time: around 750,000 demonstrators.
Aurelien Morissard/AP Photo/picture alliance


Untold masses of trash
Critics say the planned increase in the retirement age from 62 to 64 could be particularly hard on people in physically demanding jobs. Public sector workers have gone on strike, with garbage remaining uncollected in many cities for more than a week. Thousands of tons of garbage are already piling up on the streets of the capital, Paris, alone.

Rats in tourist hotspots

Rats are everywhere, one woman told the French AFP news agency: "It's disgusting. Some people can hardly get into their houses anymore." One German tourist said she had been wanting to take a romantic trip with her partner but that the trash had spoiled the city's charm. " Mark from the US complains, "It's unsanitary and not good for tourism."

Reform against the will of the people?
Around 70% of people in France reject the reform. Socialist Paris Mayor Anne Hildago is also backing the strikers. She is fully behind the protests, she declared on Monday: "If this affects people who work in the public sector — as well as those who are employed by private companies — then I say to the government: Talk to them!"

Waiting for action — but for how long?

It is not ye clear when the garbage trucks will leave their garage at the waste incineration plant in Ivry-sur-Seine. For Natacha Pommet, general secretary of the CGT General Confederation of Trade Unions, the government is responsible for the strike: "The problem is that we have a government that is desperate to implement a reform that the majority of people don't agree with."

Hopes for last-minute change of plan

Public sector workers wanted to continue striking at least until next Monday. Meanwhile, a mediation committee is meeting in Parliament. The government is confident that the Parliament will finally approve the reform on Thursday; the Senate has already agreed. The strikers, on the other hand, continue to hope that they will be able to stop the reform plans at the last minute.



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