Photo: MICHEL EULER (POOL)
On Thursday, she decided to implement President Emmanuel Macron’s most important reform project with a special article in the constitution without a vote in the National Assembly. The project can theoretically still be overturned by a vote of no confidence.
Outraged cries from the opposition
Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne said, accompanied by loud protests from the opposition: “This reform is necessary.” She takes responsibility with her government, Borne said to outraged boos in the National Assembly and officially announced the application of Article 49.3 of the Constitution, which allows the passage of a law without a parliamentary vote if the government survives one or more related no-confidence motions.
“We’re not sure about some votes, we can’t take the risk,” said Borne, explaining the decision not to vote in the National Assembly, which was originally planned for 3 p.m. The prime minister accused the opposition of blocking the debates.
The opposition now has 24 hours to table one or more motions of no confidence. The right-wing populist parliamentary group leader Marine Le Pen immediately announced a motion from her group. If the government loses the vote, it amounts to new elections. The atmosphere in the National Assembly was very heated. Some members of parliament loudly sang the national anthem, and there were numerous angry heckling.
The Senate, as the second chamber of parliament, voted in favor of the reform to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 in the morning. Approval in the National Assembly, however, did not seem certain.
Currently, the retirement age in France is 62 years. In fact, retirement begins later on average: those who have not paid in long enough to receive a full pension work longer. At the age of 67 there will then be a pension without any deductions, regardless of how long it has been paid in – the government wants to keep it that way, even if the number of years of contributions required for a full pension is to increase more quickly. She wants to increase the monthly minimum pension to around 1,200 euros. With the reform, the government wants to close an impending gap in the pension fund.
The government now faces a vote of no confidence
The center government now has to reckon with a vote of no confidence in the National Assembly. The opposition had threatened that the government should use the special article to avoid a vote in the lower house. The government does not have an absolute majority in the National Assembly. They counted on the support of the conservative Républicains for the reform. Until recently, however, it was unclear whether enough MPs from the split parliamentary group would approve the project. The government probably didn’t want to take that risk.
The pension plans were not only extremely controversial in Parliament. The unions consider them brutal and unjust. Hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets to protest for weeks. Strikes caused chaos in rail and air traffic, mountains of rubbish on the streets and canceled lessons. According to the Ministry of the Interior, more than a million people took part at the peak of the protests, and the CGT trade union spoke of 3.5 million participants.
Source: Nachrichten
