The battle against pension reform in France it continues to be red hot, with multiple marches and strikes in the streets of Paris, while the political destiny of the government faces two motions of censure. In an attempt to force the return of calm, the French police prohibited this Saturday the concentrations in the vicinity of the Place de la Concorde, located in front of the Parliament, after the last two nights there were serious incidents in the area.
“Due to the serious risks of disruption of public order and security (…) all gatherings on public roads in and around Place de la Concorde, as well as in the Champs-Elysees area, are prohibited”, said the police in a statement quoted by the AFP agency. “People who try to gather there will be systematically evicted by the police and may be fined,” it added.
With the Paris ring road cut for hours, the high schools blocked, about 15 thousand tons of garbage accumulated throughout the capital or the invasion of railways in Bordeaux (south-west) and Toulon (south-east), the fury of the French has been expressed in different ways.
Philippe Melaine, a teacher at a high school in Rennes (west) where more than 2,000 people demonstrated on Friday, told the agency AFP: We are sorry for this announcement. [del gobierno] like an insult. They haven’t heard from us for weeks. This generated a lot of anger.”
The conflict started because the president Emmanuel Macron decided to adopt its reform, without submitting it to the vote of the deputies, fearing a defeat in Parliament, by virtue of a legal mechanism: the controversial article 49.3 of the Constitution.
Its objective is to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 years by 2030 and advance to 2027 the requirement to contribute 43 years (and not 42 as now) to collect a full pension. According to the polls, two out of three French people oppose this measure.
To prevent this, the opposition presented two motions of censure: one from the independent group LIOT and another from the extreme right. If at least one is approved, something that will not be an easy task, the government of Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne and the reform would fall.
social explosion
For specialists, the use of article 49.3 was a “failure” and symbolizes the “weakness” of Macron, who is gambling with this reform his ability to act during his second term.
The article, which has not been used since 1958, allows a law to be adopted without a vote by Parliament when the government lacks the necessary majority.
“The president could save the furniture by announcing that the law will be repealed after this undemocratic adoption. But It’s not like him to listen to the French“, they wrote in the editorial of the left-wing newspaper Release.
For the moment, the decision prompted a response in the streets, which had lost strength in recent days after the largest protest against a social reform in three decades with between 1.28 and 3.5 million protesters on March 7. at the call of the unions.
But the latter are “afraid” that the social movement will surpass them and become radicalized, he told the AFP the president of the CFTC, Cyril Chabnier, who recalled that they already warned the government that, if it did not listen and use the 49.3, there would be “risks of a social explosion“.
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Thousands of people gathered again on Friday afternoon at the Place de la Concorde in Paris where, as on the eve of the adoption by decree, incidents took place that culminated in 61 people being arrested.
Some groups threw bottles and fireworks at security forces, who responded with tear gas to evacuate the place where a large bonfire was burning. In west-central Lyon, protesters entered a district town hall and tried to set it on fire, before police put out the fire and detained 36 people, according to the prefecture. On Thursday, the incidents led to 310 arrests.
Waiting for the new day of massive protests called by the unions next Thursday, the leftist leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon called for “spontaneous mobilizations.” Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin warned that he will not allow them or “disorder” either.
The energy sector, the spearhead of the extendable strikes for ten days, intensified its pulse. The strikers threatened to shut down two refineries by Monday. The authorities recommended canceling 30% of the flights at the Parisian Orly airport on Monday, 10% more than this week.
Motions of no confidence
After 49.3, the prime minister appears very weakened, defending the dialogue with the opposition for months to try to approve a reform that sought to balance the pension fund. “Our vocation is to continue governing,” said the spokesman for the Executive, Olivier Véran.
On Monday afternoon, according to parliamentary sources, the government will face two motions of censure. The one presented by LIOT can obtain the maximum support, but it would fall short of 30 votes out of the 287 necessary to bring down the government and the reform.
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The left-wing Nupes front, the far-right group of Marine Le Pen and the LIOT deputies will vote in favour, but not the right-wing opposition party Los Republicanos, which negotiated the reform with the ruling party despite the rejection of some twenty dissident deputies.
In this pulse, Macron, re-elected in April until 2027 and who is not affected by the motion, even threatened to dissolve the Assembly, if it finally knocked down his reform. According the surveys, the extreme right would be the beneficiary of an electoral advance.
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