Maneuver forces hike in pension age
Special move to spur no-confidence efforts
French President Emmanuel Macron ordered his prime minister to wield a special constitutional power on Thursday that skirts parliament to force through an unpopular bill raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 without a vote.
His calculated risk set off a clamor among lawmakers, who began singing the national anthem even before Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne arrived in the lower chamber. She spoke over their shouts, acknowledging that Macron’s unilateral move will trigger quick motions of no-confidence in his government.
The fury of opposition lawmakers echoed the anger of citizens and workers’ unions. Thousands gathered at the Place de la Concorde facing the National Assembly, lighting a bonfire. As night fell, police charged against the demonstrators in waves to clear the Place, but hundreds remained nearly an hour later.
The unions that have organized strikes and marches since January, leaving Paris reeking in piles of garbage, announced new rallies and marches in protest. “This retirement reform is brutal, unjust, unjustified for the world of workers,” they said.
Macron has made the proposed pension changes the priority of his second term, arguing that reform is needed to keep the pension system from diving into deficit as France, like many richer nations, faces lower birth rates and longer life expectancy.
Macron decided to invoke the special power during a Cabinet meeting at the Elysee presidential palace, a few minutes before the scheduled vote in France’s lower house of parliament, because he had no guarantee of a majority.
“Today, uncertainty looms” about whether a majority would have voted for the bill, Borne acknowledged, but she said, “We cannot gamble on the future of our pensions. That reform is necessary.”
Borne prompted boos from the opposition when she said her government is accountable to the parliament. Lawmakers can try to revoke the changes through no-confidence motions, she said.
“There will actually be a proper vote, and therefore the parliamentary democracy will have the last say,” Borne said.
She said in an interview Thursday night that she was not angry when addressing disrespectful lawmakers but “very shocked.”
“Certain (opposition lawmakers) want chaos, at the Assembly and in the streets,” she said.