Pension reform pushes French government to vote of no confidence

Macron’s push to raise retirement age sparks fury

The French government could face a no-confidence vote on Monday as MPs said they feared for their safety, protests intensified and police banned demonstrators from parts of central Paris following Emmanuel Macron’s decision to push for an unpopular increase in the retirement age without a vote in Parliament .

Opposition politicians have filed two no-confidence motions against the cabinet to protest the French government’s use of controversial executive power to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64.

As The Guardian recalls, French President Macron decided last week that the government should use Article 49.3 of the constitution to bypass parliament, as he feared that it would not get enough votes for pension changes.

After two months of protests against pension changes and intermittent strikes led by a rare united front of all trade unions, anger continued to mount over the weekend as demonstrations took place in many French cities. More strikes by railroad workers, aviators and schoolchildren are planned next week.

The two proposals for a vote of no confidence are believed to be unlikely to pass as they would require an unprecedented unification of all warring opposition parties. A united front across the political spectrum – from the radical left to the far right Marine Le Pen to the Republican right Nicolas Sarkozy – is needed to overcome the high threshold of an absolute majority of 287 votes, The Guardian notes.

A vote of no confidence could only be passed with the support of a large number of Republican deputies. But party leader Eric Ciotti ordered his deputies not to vote against the government on the grounds that doing so could lead to “chaos.”

The Ciotti constituency office in the southern city of Nice was looted over the weekend. Windows were smashed and graffiti on the walls threatened to riot if he did not uphold a vote of no confidence. “They want to use violence to put pressure on my vote on Monday. I will never give in to the new followers of terror,” Ciotti tweeted. Other Republican MPs said they receive hundreds of threatening emails a day.

A poll in the Journal du Dimanche on Sunday showed Macron’s popularity has fallen to its lowest level since anti-government yellow vest protests four years ago.

As police prepare for a week of unpredictable, spontaneous protests in towns and small towns across France, the mood of anger has been compared to the start of the “yellow vest” protests, when demonstrators in small towns and the countryside gathered at roundabouts and street protests. Initially, the protests were directed against higher fuel taxes, but gradually escalated into a broader distrust of the entire political system.

More than 160 people were arrested across France in the early hours of Sunday morning after the third consecutive night of street protests since the government pushed through pension changes. Police fired tear gas in Paris when garbage cans were set on fire, and clashes with demonstrators occurred in Bordeaux and Nantes. Several people have been arrested in Lyon after police said “aggressive groups” provoked the clashes.

Parisian police authorities continued to ban demonstrators from gathering at the Place de la Concorde opposite the Parliament after clashes with protesters last week.

“The reform must be carried out,” Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire told Le Parisien newspaper. He said that there is a right to demonstrate, but “violence is unacceptable.”

Meanwhile, the day of the nationwide strike action, which will affect trains, flights and schools, is scheduled for Thursday. The strike intensified over the weekend, with oil refineries shut down in the south and queues for petrol, although authorities said there were enough stocks to avoid shortages. Philippe Martinez of the left-wing CGT trade union has urged waste workers in Paris to continue their two-week strike, which has resulted in more than 10,000 tons of trash in half of Paris’ districts.