Vote of no confidence in government in France on pension reform

The applications were made by the right-wing national Rassemblement National (RN) and the small center party Liot. However, it is considered unlikely that any of the motions will receive a majority and that Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne’s government will be overthrown.

There will be no majority to overthrow the government, Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire told Le Parisien newspaper. While none of the other opposition parties support the initiative of the right-wing RN, the left-wing alliance Nupes says it wants to make common cause with Liot. However, their proposal could only become threatening if some members of the conservative Républicains also agreed. The party supported the reform in principle.

Votes from right-wing national MPs could also not be ruled out. Since parliamentary elections last summer, President Emmanuel Macron’s center alliance no longer has a majority of its own. The government therefore pushed through the reform on Thursday, also invoking a special article in the constitution. In doing so, she prevented a vote in the National Assembly at the last minute to avoid a possible defeat.

Anger also spread to the streets over the weekend. Protests and riots broke out all over France. Rubbish bins were set on fire, barricades were erected and MPs’ constituency offices were vandalized.

Many fear that the protests will now intensify. There is no doubt that the use of Article 49.3 has sparked widespread anger, said Laurent Frajerman, a radical movement specialist at BFMTV. Yet the protests remained essentially pacifist.

The French trade unions had warned the government days ago that the protest would become more radical. France’s largest refinery near Le Havre has been shut down since Friday. The TotalEnergies refinery in Donges near Nantes has been out of operation since March 7. According to information from the regional newspaper “Ouest-France”, further closures could follow by Monday, such as in Lavéra in the south of France.

Since the beginning of this year, public life in France has been curtailed by protests against the pension reform. This leads to failures in train and air traffic, strikes at the garbage collection service and at schools. The protests will continue. For Thursday (March 23), the unions have again called for a major strike day. (sda/dpa)