MACRON’S GOVERNMENT SURVIVES 2 VOTES IN PARLIAMENT
Parliament adopted a divisive pension bill Monday raising the retirement age in France from 62 to 64, after lawmakers in the lower chamber rejected two noconfidence votes against the government.
But the bill pushed through by French President Emmanuel Macron without lawmakers’ approval still faces a review by the Constitutional Council before it can be signed into law. The council has the power to reject articles within bills but usually approves them.
The first no-confidence motion, proposed by a small centrist group with support across the left, narrowly missed approval by National Assembly lawmakers Monday, garnering 278 of the 287 votes needed to pass. The second motion, brought by the far-right National Rally, won just 94 votes.
Macron’s centrist alliance has more seats than
any other group in the lower chamber.
The speaker of the National Assembly, Yael BraunPivet, said the failure of both votes means parliament has adopted the pension bill.
Yet this is not the end of the complex path to turn the bill into law. Opponents said they would ask the Constitutional Council to review the text before it is formally promulgated, opening the door to the possible rejection of articles within the measure if they are not in line with the constitution. Far-right leader Marine Le Pen said she would ask the
council to censure it.
Macron, who has remained silent since his decision to push the bill through last week, will meet today with Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne and the leaders of his centrist alliance.
After the first vote Monday, some leftist lawmakers called for Borne to resign.
“Only nine votes are missing ... to bring both the government down and its reform down,” lawmaker Mathilde Panot said. “The government is already dead in the eyes of the French, it doesn’t have any legitimacy anymore.”