- Antoinette Radford
- BBC News
The French government faces two votes of no confidence on Monday, as the fallout from a controversial pension reform continues.
Prime Minister Elizabeth Bourne used Article 49:3 of the constitution to advance the bill without a vote last week.
Since then, thousands have taken to the streets of France in protest.
The motions of no-confidence were submitted by the centrist and far-right National Assembly deputies, and are scheduled to be debated by Parliament from 16:00 (15:00 GMT).
If the motions of no confidence succeed, President Emmanuel Macron will not be in danger of losing office, but the positions of Bourne and the government will be in danger.
Macron can either name a new government or dissolve the National Assembly and call new elections.
The salary reform bill will also be nullified.
If the motions of no confidence fail, the bill to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 will become law.
Macron argued that France’s aging population made the current pension plan unaffordable.
But this is not a sentiment shared by everyone in parliament.
Agence France-Presse quoted Charles de Courson, one of the writers of the no-confidence vote, as saying that overthrowing the government was “the only way to stop the social and political crisis in this country.”
Macron’s allies make up a minority in the lower house of the National Assembly, but for the no-confidence motion to succeed, all of the opposition will have to unite.
The French Republican Party holds 61 seats, and their leader, Eric Ciotti, said last week that they would not support the motions of no confidence.
Ciotti said the decision to invoke the provision was “the result of many years of political failures” that showed “a deep crisis in our constitution,” but he did not believe a vote of no confidence was the answer.
But a senior Republican, Aurelien Brady, said he would vote against the government.
The decision to use 49:3 angered many in France, where protesters clashed with police over the weekend over the repairs. Thousands set fires across the country and some threw fireworks at police.
Ciotti said on Twitter that people had thrown rocks at his office throughout the night, while other lawmakers supported the bill, saying they had received death threats.
It is scheduled to continue strikes in opposition to raising the proposed retirement age.