French President Emmanuel Macron’s government was thrown into disarray on Thursday after it used a controversial constitutional loophole to pass a widely contested bill to raise the retirement age after there were doubts the legislation would guarantee a majority vote in the National Assembly.
Thousands of people immediately took to the streets, and left-wing and union leaders have already called for massive demonstrations over the weekend after French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne took to the floor of the National Assembly – amid shouts of “resignation” from opposition MPs – to invoke Article 49.3 of the constitution, which is A mechanism often described as the “nuclear option” in French legislative politics, because it allows the government to pass bills without the need for a majority vote.
Justify the decision to invoke the article, Mr. President He said The “financial and economic risks are so great” of not raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 that the government argues the program faces insolvency otherwise.
We were at the end of the rehearsal. We have a lot of uncertainty. We will not risk putting ourselves back in the hands of our political opponents who have nonetheless committed themselves to reform,” said a government spokesperson. Tell the Le Parisien Newspaper.
However, the publication of Article 49.3 does not mean that Macron’s government is out of the woods just yet, as the right-wing populist National Assembly (RN) in the National Assembly, Marine Le Pen, has vowed to launch a no-confidence measure on Friday, which, if successful, is likely to see the president forced Ministers Bourne to resign and possibly dissolve Parliament by Macron.
“The use of 49.3 for the eleventh time and on a text so basic and so vehemently rejected by the French betrays great impulsiveness on the part of an executive who no longer hears and no longer listens to the people,” Le Pen He said.
Should the motion fail, NA opposition parties can still appeal to the Constitutional Council to request a referendum among the public to overturn the legislation.
🔴 Alert – Des milliers of personnes se rendent sur la # concord Counter Law 49-3.
“Gafa Peter! » pic.twitter.com/1ocPYIzJXD
– Clement Lanot (@ClementLanot) March 16, 2023
Joining the spontaneous protests in the streets of Paris after the news spread, the left-wing leader of the New Popular Ecological and Social Union (NUPES) group in the National Assembly, Jean-Luc Mélenchon He said Pension reforms “have no parliamentary legitimacy”.
Suggesting that this could see the end of President Macron’s term, Melenchon added: “On the basis of this fiasco, we could not see that there is no presidential majority. The presidential minority collapsed before your eyes.”
Even some within Macron’s political Ennahda party expressed anger at the move, with MP Eric Bothorel saying he oscillates “between disappointment and anger”.
“We should have put it to a vote,” Bothorell said He said. We owe it to the opposition, to those who have always shown their disagreement in a calm and dignified manner. Defeat or victory, democracy would have spoken.
“The creeping filth is the clearest sign of the widespread anger over the bill to raise the French retirement age by two years.” https://t.co/RDIzSXdE38
Breitbart News March 14, 2023
The political turmoil comes less than a year after Macron secured a second term as president, which, while he won by a comfortable margin, saw Le Pen surge to 41.5 percent of the vote, as young millennial and working-class voters turned their backs. On the globalization agenda of Macron, who has spearheaded his campaign on a promise to reform the pension system in order to keep the European nation’s large welfare state afloat.
Less than two months later, Macron was stripped of his ruling majority in Parliament after winning just 245 seats in the National Assembly elections, forcing him to form a coalition with the centre-right Les Republicans to maintain the required majority of 289 votes.
Attempts to raise the retirement age have sent millions onto the streets in protests and strikes organized by trade unions across the country, which has seen violent riots in cities such as Paris and Marseille, as well as activists launching blockades of ports and power refineries in a bid to force the government’s hand. The strikes also saw the streets of Paris filled with tons of rubbish as municipal workers quit their jobs.
Unions have already announced their intention to launch more “actions” in response to the Section 49.3 invocation, and two days of protest are likely planned next week.
The seventh nationwide protest by trade unions in France against Macron’s plan to raise the French retirement age saw “angry” confrontations with police in Paris, as the legislation cleared a major hurdle in the Senate. https://t.co/I0JseBdHWR
Breitbart News March 12, 2023
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