French government survives no-confidence votes over pensions
The French government PARIS — survived two no-confidence votes Monday in the lower chamber of parliament, prompted by a push by President Emmanuel Macron last week to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 without giving lawmakers a vote.
The no-confidence motion filed by a small centrist group and supported by a leftist coalition received 278 votes in the National Assembly, falling short of the 287 needed to pass. Another motion at the initiative of the far-right won just 94 votes.
With the failure of the no-confidence motions, the pensions bill is considered adopted.
The tight result in the first vote led some leftist lawmakers to immediately call for Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne to resign.
“Only nine votes are missing ... to bring both the government down and its reform down,” hard-left lawmaker Mathilde Panot said. “The government is already dead in the eyes of the French, it doesn’t have any legitimacy any more.”
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen said her group would file a request for the Constitutional Council to examine the bill Tuesday and possibly censure it.
The no-confidence motions were filed by lawmakers furious that Macron ordered the use of special constitutional powers to force through an unpopular bill raising the retirement age without giving them a vote.
The Senate, dominated by conservatives who back the retirement plan, approved the legislation last week.
The no-confidence motions needed the backing of half the seats in the National Assembly to pass. Macron’s centrist alliance has more seats than any other group in the lower chamber.
The tensions in the political arena have been echoed on the streets, marked by intermittent protests and strikes in various sectors, from transport to energy and sanitation workers. Garbage in Paris is piling ever higher and reeking of rotting food on the 15th day of a strike by collectors. The three main incinerators serving the French capital have been mostly blocked, as has a garbage sorting center northwest of Paris.