French govt survives no-confidence motion

FRANCE - Fresh protests have erupted in France after President Emmanuel Macron’s government survived two no-confidence votes - one by just nine votes - over hugely unpopular pension reforms.

Demonstrators took to the streets on Monday night, marching with banners that said ‘passed by force’, after the poll in the National Assembly was triggered by the head of state raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 without a parliamentary vote.

The first no-confidence motion, by centrists, needed 287 votes to pass but got 278 - a tiny margin of victory for Mr Macron. A second by the far-right won just 94 votes.

It means that the hugely unpopular pension reform will now pass straight into law, but further opposition is inevitable.

Ignored

Rioters have been on the streets of France since Macron ignored the National Assembly last Thursday, so as to bring the new legislation in by presidential decree.

As the censure motion result was read out, opposition MPs from the Left-wing France Unbowed party held up printed signs, saying ‘RIP’, while shouting ‘Resignation! Resignation!’

The narrow vote is a personal disaster for Mr Macron’s prime minister,

Elisabeth Borne, who had tried to rally a parliamentary majority for the legislation.

Numerous politicians had been threatened with the guillotine if they supported President Macron’s government.

Police said macabre messages had been sent to MPs preparing for the crucial poll.

‘I am now receiving death threats,’ said Agnes Evren, MP and vice-president of the Republicans party.

She said anonymous tormenters had evoked the guillotining of King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette in Paris during the so-called ‘Terror’ that followed the 1789 Revolution.