French president’s government survives no-confidence votes

Protesters of retirement bill clash with police

PARIS — The French National Assembly rejected a no-confidence motion against the government of President Emmanuel Macron on Monday, ensuring a fiercely contested bill raising the retirement age to 64 from 62 becomes the law of the land.

The first of two motions received 278 votes, nine short of the 287 needed to pass. The close result reflected widespread anger at the pension overhaul, at Macron for his apparent aloofness and at the way the measure was rammed through Parliament last week without a full vote on the bill itself. The Senate, France’s upper house of Parliament, passed the pension bill this month.

A second no-confidence motion, filed by the far-right National Rally, failed Monday, as well, with only 94 lawmakers voting in favor.

The change, which Macron has sought since the beginning of his first term in 2017, has provoked two months of demonstrations, intermittent strikes and occasional violence. It has split France, with polls consistently showing two-thirds of the population opposing the overhaul.

After the votes Monday, there was no indication the protests would abate or the restive mood that brought about this crisis would fade anytime soon. A period of deep uncertainty lies before France, and it is unclear how Macron, who has remained largely silent, will be able to reassert his authority.

“Through strikes and demonstrations, we must force the withdrawal of the bill,” Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the far-left leader, said after the vote. After night fell, sporadic violent clashes erupted between crowds of protesters and the police in cities around the country, including Strasbourg, Rennes and Lyon. In

Paris, small groups of protesters played a game of cat and mouse with police, knocking over trash cans and setting fire to uncollected garbage. Riot police responded with tear gas, pepper spray and batons.

Labor unions have called for a day of strikes and demonstrations Thursday, and Marine Le Pen, the leader of the National Rally party, declared, “I believe it is difficult to govern in these circumstances.”

But for now, the center has held and the fall of the government has been averted.

Before the vote, in a speech of fierce indignation, Élisabeth Borne, the prime minister, denounced those lawmakers who “deny the role of Parliament and affirm that the street is more legitimate than our institutions.” Clearly addressing both the extreme right and the far left, which have led opposition to the pension overhaul, she accused them of a “paroxysm” of anti-parliamentary and anti-democratic behavior.

Just who may be undermining French democracy is now fiercely contested.

Last week, rather than putting the overhaul to a vote in the National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament, as he had said he wanted to do, Macron opted for a measure, known as the 49.3 after the relevant article of the constitution, that allows certain bills to be passed without a vote. But it exposes the government to censure motions, such as the ones offered Monday.

This was the 11th time in less than a year the French government has resorted to using the 49.3. clause, prompting a growing feeling among opponents of Macron that the country’s democratic process was being circumvented, even if the measure is legal under the Constitution of the Fifth Republic, fashioned to create the all-powerful presidency sought by Charles de Gaulle.