Emmanuel Macron exacerbated the serious political and social crisis in France yesterday when he decided to approve by decree, without a final vote in the National Assembly, the unpopular pension reform. Three opposition groups immediately announced several motions of censure, which will be discussed next week, although they have a priori little chance of success.
The exceptional recourse to article 49.3 of the Constitution was announced almost at the last moment, minutes before the deputies met to vote on the reform. Macron and his government did not receive enough guarantees to secure a majority. So they opted for what they believed to be the least bad solution.
Frantic hours were experienced in Paris, with several meetings of the president on the Elysée with his prime minister, Élisabeth Borne, and other members of the cabinet. The sensations changed over time. Optimism on the government side alternated with the realization that the numbers would not come out.
As leaked to the press from the Elysée, Macron’s final decision also weighed the danger of instability and the consequences for the markets, since France is a highly indebted country, especially compared to Germany. The international context after the bankruptcy of several banks in the United States, the critical situation of Credit Suisse and the volatility of the stock markets were factors that influenced it. Macron argued to his team that he was acting with “too great financial and economic risks” that could lead to a potential defeat in Parliament.
The approval by decree of the reform does not ward off the dangers, because the president and his government are affected. They are probably in their weakest position since Macron entered the Elysée in May 2017. A financial risk may have been avoided, but at the cost of adding more fuel to the social conflict.
It has been several months of enormous effort and wear and tear – they were the target of insults and threats – and in the end they were forced to use an emergency constitutional tool.
Motions of no confidence should not succeed. They have been presented by La França Insubmisa (LFI, radical left), the National Regroupment (RN, extreme right) and the varied group Llibertats, Independents, Ultramar i Territories (LIOT). This last motion has a transversal vocation.
The president of Els Republicans (LR, traditional right), Éric, solemnly promised that they would not vote for any motion that would bring down the Government in order to “not add chaos to chaos”. “The crisis situation in our country would not tolerate a fatal blow to our democracy and our institutions”, he declared.
The assurances given by Ciotti are not very reliable because there are serious divisions in LR. It was these internal differences that prevented the votes needed to ensure that the reform was approved in the Assembly. In any case, it is plausible to think that the majority of deputies of this conservative party do not want to bring down the Government. In this case, Macron has threatened to dissolve the chamber and call elections, a not reassuring scenario for LR. Many of their seats would be in danger.
The far-right leader, Marine Le Pen, spoke of the “total failure of the Government” and called for the resignation of the prime minister. Jean-Luc Mélenchon, head of LFI, urged the mobilizations to continue and predicted “good chances that we will have the last word”.
The forceful adoption of the reform, which envisages delaying the legal retirement age by two years – from 62 to 64 – infuriates the unions even more, who met to decide how their protest would continue. The union leaders consider that using article 49.3 after months of debate and discontent in the street is anti-democratic and contemptuous behavior on the part of the Executive. Since the beginning of the year there have already been eight days of mobilizations and strikes. If the reform had been approved by vote, at least the union leaders would have valued normal democratic procedures. Instead, the recourse to the decree revolts them and encourages them to continue the protests, like the one in Paris, where there are already almost 10,000 tons of waste accumulated in the streets without being collected.
After the news spread that the reform was imposed without a vote, people began to gather in Plaça de la Concordia, in the capital. There was an attempt to block traffic, prompting the intervention of riot police. Marseille, Bordeaux, Lille and other cities were the scene of spontaneous gatherings.
When she presented herself to the National Assembly to announce the decision taken by Macron, Premier Borne was greeted with loud boos, an outcry that forced the president of the chamber to suspend the session for a few minutes. The LFI MPs stood, holding placards against the reform, and sang La Marseillaise, while Borne tried to read his short speech.
The root problem of the current political tension is that Macron’s supporters lost their absolute majority in the National Assembly in the legislative elections in June last year. The power system of the Fifth Republic, very presidential, is not used to consensus and coalitions. To complicate things even more, the most extreme political formations, right and left, are very strong at this time.
Interviewed last night on TF1 news, Borne insisted that a group of LR deputies preferred to “play a personal card”, in contradiction with their previous positions, and forced the Government to act to save a vital initiative for guarantee the pension system. The Prime Minister recalled that the adopted text was discussed for 175 hours in Parliament and the Senate approved it, so the Government cannot be accused of unilateral behavior.
