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Emmanuel Macron risks his government: faces a motion of no confidence amid strong protests in France

2023-03-19T16:50:17.936Z


It is for having forced a pension reform at age 64, with the application of the 49.3 mechanism, which does not require a parliamentary vote.


French President Emmanuel Macron

is risking his government this Monday

, in a motion of no confidence by the deputies, for having forced a pension reform at the age of 64, with the application of the 49.3 mechanism, which does not require a parliamentary vote.

Its Prime Minister Elizabeth Borne could come out on top because the 20 pro-independence legislators who promote her have only gotten -so far- 258 of the 287 votes needed for her fall.

But the crisis has calcined it

.

Sooner or later she will leave office to put France back on the path of pacification.

Ministers and trade unionists urge President Macron to address the French people, after days of often very violent protests against his decision to force an increase in the retirement age in Parliament, without a vote.

The unrest has raised fears of

a repeat of the Yellow Vest movement,

which paralyzed parts of the country for months during his first term as president.

Wooden pallets burn during a protest against the pension reform bill.

AP Photo

Silent


Macron has been silent since Thursday, when Borne, his prime minister, was booed by the deputies, after announcing that the reform would be approved by decree.

The premier cried in a hall of the National Assembly, when thousands of people gathered spontaneously to protest in the Place de la Concorde.

" 80 percent of the people

, and even half of the president's supporters, opposed

the decision to avoid voting for the pension reform ," said Bernard Sananès, head of the Elabe pollster.

Clashes followed across France between protesters and police.

Le Monde

claimed that Macron's advisers were considering whether he should address the nation, in an attempt to "find a way out of the political stalemate".

But aides told the newspaper

he had "no qualms or remorse"

about ducking the parliamentary vote, saying he "had no choice."

Macron seems determined to resist. Will he succeed in implementing a measure he says is vital to improving the country's finances?

And why are the French so upset at the prospect of having to work two more years until they are 64?

the confidence motion


One of the votes of confidence has been presented by the right-wing National Rally (RN),

headed by Marine Le Pen

, and the other by Liot, a small centrist party.

If either is successful, the government must step down, leaving Macron to form a new administration or dissolve Parliament and call an election.

Even if Borne survives the motion, his days seem numbered.

Liot, who has nominated his motion as "cross-party", has a better chance

as the left is unwilling to align itself behind Le Pen

.

To reach the necessary 287 votes in the National Assembly, he needs the support of some 30 of the 64 center-right Republican deputies.

Two people walk past overflowing garbage cans near the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

AP Photo

Éric Ciotti, the leader of the Republicans, has refused to support the motion, saying: "We don't want to add more chaos to chaos

.

"

He also worries that his party will do poorly in an early election.

A handful of Ciotti's lawmakers have indicated they will challenge him.

Jordan Bardella, the president of the National Rally, has tried to persuade more to follow suit by promising that his party will not field candidates against him if the crisis leads to an election.

Hopes in a referendum


Opponents of the pension reform have another chance to nullify it

by trying to call a referendum

.

They have already secured the support of more than the 185 required deputies and have nine months to collect the signatures of a tenth of the electorate, just over 4.85 million people.

But they must file their challenge before the president signs it into law.

His chances of success seem good.

Activating the process would also mean that the new pension scheme could not be introduced before the referendum took place, frustrating Macron's plans to start introducing changes from September and casting a shadow over the rest of the government's work.

The country is in a state of rebellion

, with spontaneous demonstrations that are repressed by the police.

On Saturday they banned demonstrations in the Place de la Concorde and on the Champs-Elysées, the symbolic avenue for the Yellow Vests, which for two years paralyzed the Macron government.

This crisis can be worse.

People challenge authority

.

In France, authorization from the prefecture is required for marches.

Nobody asks for it.

Last night there were 2,000 people again in the Place de la Concorde, who were evicted with gas by the police.

But a spontaneous demonstration, which left the Place de la Italie at sunset, surprised and brought together 4,000 people.

The police cracked down hard.

But at midnight another spontaneous demonstration took place in the rue de Charonne, where the terrorist attacks took place, in the Bastille.

Thursday will be the great march of the unions.

The capital's police announced a ban on gatherings in the Place de la Concorde, near the Parliament building, after two nights of protests in which they used tear gas and repression to disperse the protesters, whose ranks were swelled by

members of the Black Blocs”,

the anarchists that the syndicalists detest so much.

Industrial unrest continues, symbolized by

some 10,000 tons of rubbish piled up on the streets of Paris

due to a garbage collectors' strike.

Incinerators remain closed.

The biggest threat to the economy are strikes at oil refineries, which are spreading, while train services have also been disrupted.

Key school exams, due to start this week, are also under threat.

The ninth in a series of one-day national strikes by millions of workers is scheduled for Thursday.

In this crisis of the pension reform without a vote, there is a philosophy that the rest of the world does not understand and it is a French specificity.

In France, a revolutionary country,

"the population wants to work to live, not live to work

. "

There is a French “arte de vivre” that starts with working just 35 hours a week.

An inheritance from the socialist minister Martine Aubry, which no one has managed to change.

They pay heavy taxes for the state to protect them, to receive 85 percent of their contributions when they retire, to enjoy life after retirement.

It is different from other countries.

But France has always been different and is the fourth power in the world because it has high levels of productivity.

bp

look too

Macron's decree for the pension reform aggravates the crisis in France

An insurrection in France is possible, say the unions fighting against Macron's pension reform

Source: clarin

All news articles on 2023-03-19

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