Tag: French politics

Baltics blast China diplomat for questioning sovereignty of ex-Soviet states

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The Baltic states of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia are demanding an explanation from Beijing after China’s top envoy to France questioned the independence of former Soviet countries like Ukraine.
Lu Shaye, China’s ambassador to France, said in an interview on Friday with French television network LCI that former Soviet countries have no “effective status” in international law.
Asked whether Crimea belongs to Ukraine, Lu said that “it depends how you perceive the problem,” arguing that it was historically part of Russia and offered to Ukraine by former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.
“In international law, even these ex-Soviet Union countries do not have the status, the effective [status] in international law, because there is no international agreement to materialize their status as a sovereign country,” he said.
The comments sparked outrage among Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia — three former Soviet countries.
Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkēvičs said in a tweet that his ministry summoned “the authorized chargé d’affaires of the Chinese embassy in Riga on Monday to provide explanations. This step is coordinated with Lithuania and Estonia.”
He called the comments “completely unacceptable,” adding: “We expect explanation from the Chinese side and complete retraction of this statement.”
Margus Tsahkna, Estonia’s foreign minister, called the comments “false” and “a misinterpretation of history.”

Gabrielius Landsbergis, Lithuania’s foreign minister, shared the interview on Twitter with the comment: “If anyone is still wondering why the Baltic States don’t trust China to “broker peace in Ukraine,” here’s a Chinese ambassador arguing that Crimea is Russian and our countries’ borders have no legal basis.”
Kyiv also pushed back strongly against the ambassador’s comments.
“It is strange to hear an absurd version of the ‘history of Crimea’ from a representative of a country that is scrupulous about its thousand-year history,” Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office, said in a tweet on Sunday. “If you want to be a major political player, do not parrot the propaganda of Russian outsiders.”
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell called the remarks “unacceptable” in a tweet on Sunday. “The EU can only suppose these declarations do not represent China’s official policy,” Borrell said.
France in a statement on Sunday stated its “full solidarity” with all the allied countries affected, which it said had acquired their independence “after decades of oppression,” according to Reuters. “On Ukraine specifically, it was internationally recognized within borders including Crimea in 1991 by the entire international community, including China,” a foreign ministry spokesperson was quoted as saying.
The foreign ministry spokesperson also called on China to clarify whether the ambassador’s statement reflects its position or not.
The row comes ahead of a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg on Monday, where relations with China are on the agenda.

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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )

April 21, 2023
Macron doubles down on French ‘independence’ amid pension reform crisis

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PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron drew a connection between his country’s pension reform and Europe’s independence from other countries, during a televised address Monday evening.
“We are a people who intend to control and choose our destiny, who do not want to depend on anyone, neither on the forces of speculation, nor on foreign powers, nor on wills other than our own, and we are right,” Macron said during the 15-minute speech.
The French head of state’s TV appearance was the first time he has addressed the nation since he signed his contentious pension reform — which raises the retirement age from 62 to 64 — into law amid a prolonged political and social crisis.
The president’s reference to independence from “foreign powers” echoed controversial comments he made earlier this month in an interview with POLITICO and French daily Les Echos. On his way back from China, the French president created a stir by saying Europe should avoid being the United States’ follower — including on the matter of Taiwan’s security.
“One cannot declare its independence: It is built through ambitions, efforts at the national and European level, in terms of knowledge, research, attractiveness, technology, industry, defense. And it is also financed collectively through work,” Macron said Monday.
European and French independence, he added, is what will “allow us to obtain more justice” and decrease inequalities.
The bill was greenlit by the country’s top constitutional court on Friday, crushing hopes of opposition parties and unions that the reform could still be stopped.
The French president, who faces the prospect of a gridlocked parliament, said his government would focus on labor, law and justice, and “progress” in the coming months, with Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne expected to present a more detailed roadmap next week.

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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )

April 17, 2023
Macron was ‘kissing Xi’s ass’ in China, Trump says

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Donald Trump accused French President Emmanuel Macron of sucking up to China late Wednesday.
“You’ve got this crazy world that’s blowing up and the United States have absolutely no say,” Trump, who became the first U.S. president — former or current — to be indicted last month, told Fox News.
“And Macron, who’s a friend of mine, is over with China kissing [Xi’s] ass in China, okay. I said France is now going to China?” said Trump, whose relationship with Macron gradually soured during his time in office.
Macron’s comments come after the French president suggested Europe avoid getting dragged into a U.S.-China confrontation over Taiwan, in an interview with POLITICO during his official visit to China.
The “great risk” Europe faces, Macron claimed, is that it “gets caught up in crises that are not ours, which prevents it from building its strategic autonomy.”
Macron’s comments have not made him new friends on the other side of the Atlantic.
In the U.S., Mike Gallagher, the Republican chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, called them “embarrassing” and “disgraceful. The White House said only that it was “focused on the terrific collaboration and coordination that we have with France,” per National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby.
Despite his harsh words for Macron’s China trip, Trump — who more than once boasted about his excellent relationship with the Chinese president when he was in office — went on to praise Xi Jinping in his interview Wednesday.

“President Xi is a brilliant man: if you went all over Hollywood to look for somebody to play the role of President Xi, you couldn’t find him,” Trump said.
“There’s nobody like that: The look, the brains, the whole thing,” he added, describing Xi someone who is “top of the line smart.”

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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )

April 11, 2023
Poland’s Morawiecki plays Europe’s anti-Macron in Washington

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There’s an Emmanuel Macron-shaped shadow hovering over this week’s U.S. visit by Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.
In contrast to the French president — who in an interview with POLITICO tried to put some distance between the U.S. and Europe in any future confrontation with China over Taiwan and called for strengthening the Continent’s “strategic autonomy” — the Polish leader is underlining the critical importance of the alliance between America and Europe, not least because his country is one of Kyiv’s strongest allies in the war with Russia.
“Instead of building strategic autonomy from the United States, I propose a strategic partnership with the United States,” he said before flying to Washington.

In the U.S. capital, Morawiecki continued with his under-the-table kicks at the French president.
“I see no alternative, and we are absolutely on the same wavelength here, to building an even closer alliance with the Americans. If countries to the west of Poland understand this less, it is probably because of historical circumstances,” he said on Tuesday in Washington.
Unlike France, which has spent decades bristling at Europe’s reliance on the U.S. for its security, Poland is one of the Continent’s keenest American allies. Warsaw has pushed hard for years for U.S. troops to be stationed on its territory, and many of its recent arms contracts have gone to American companies. It signed a $1.4 billion deal earlier this year to buy a second batch of Abrams tanks, and has also agreed to spend $4.6 billion on advanced F-35 fighter jets.
“I am glad that this proposal for an even deeper strategic partnership is something that finds such fertile ground here in the United States, because we know that there are various concepts formulated by others in Europe, concepts that create more threats, more question marks, more unknowns,” Morawiecki said. “Poland is trying to maintain the most commonsense policy based on a close alliance with the United States within the framework of the European Union, and this is the best path for Poland.”
Fast friends
Poland has become one of Ukraine’s most important allies, and access to its roads, railways and airports is crucial in funneling weapons, ammunition and other aid to Ukraine.
That’s helped shift perceptions of Poland — seen before the war as an increasingly marginal member of the Western club thanks to its issues with violating the rule of law, into a key country of the NATO alliance.
Warsaw also sees the Russian attack on Ukraine as justifying its long-held suspicion of its historical foe, and it hasn’t been shy in pointing the finger at Paris and Berlin for being wrong about the threat posed by the Kremlin.
“Old Europe believed in an agreement with Russia, and old Europe failed,” Morawiecki said in a joint news conference with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris. “But there is a new Europe — Europe that remembers what Russian communism was. And Poland is the leader of this new Europe.”
That’s why Macron’s comments have been seized on by Warsaw.
According to Poland’s PM Mateusz Morawiecki, Emmanuel Macron’s talks of distancing the EU from America “threatens to break up” the block | Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images
“I absolutely don’t agree with President Macron. We believe that more America is needed in Europe … We want more cooperation with the U.S. on a partnership basis,” Marcin Przydacz, a foreign policy adviser to Polish President Andrzej Duda, told Poland’s Radio Zet, adding that the strategic autonomy idea pushed by Macron “has the goal of cutting links between Europe and the United States.”
While Poland is keen on European countries hitting NATO’s goal of spending at least 2 percent of gross domestic product on defense — a target that only seven alliance members, including Poland, but not France and Germany, are meeting — and has no problem with them building up military industries, it doesn’t want to weaken ties with the U.S., said Sławomir Dębski, head of the state-financed Polish Institute of International Affairs.
He warned that Macron’s talks of distancing Europe from America in the event of a conflict with China “threatens to break up the EU, which is against the interests not only of Poland, but also of most European countries.”

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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )

April 11, 2023
French unions vow further protests on 10th general strike against Macron’s pension plans

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PARIS — French unions vowed to continue demonstrations next week amid another day of protests Tuesday against French President Emmanuel Macron’s controversial pension reforms — the 10th general strike this year.
Clashes broke out between small groups of protesters and police, especially in Paris, where some people also ransacked a supermarket. But the number of protesters also decreased almost everywhere in the country compared to last week, according to estimates by both French authorities and unions. Around 730,000 people protested in total, compared to more than 1 million last Thursday, according to the French interior ministry. Estimates by trade union CGT, meanwhile, calculated that the number of protesters declined from 3.5 million last week to approximately 2 million on Tuesday.
But Parisians can expect some relief for their noses Wednesday when garbage collectors are set to resume work after weeks of a strike that has left piles of rubbish stacked along streets.
The protests have been running since the beginning of the year, prompted by Macron’s plans to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 and increase the level of contributions required to receive a full pension. Discontent mounted earlier this month when the government decided to force the measures through parliament without a vote, raising concerns that the protests could turn into a broader anti-government movement like the Yellow Jackets, which brought months of unrest during Macron’s first term in office.
The strikes on Tuesday hit sectors including public transport and schools as well as energy plants and oil refineries, causing fuel shortages.
But Macron’s administration has not shown signs that it will revise the reforms. Government spokesperson Olivier Véran on Tuesday rejected a proposal by the CFDT union to put the measures on ice and find a mediator to resolve the situation.
But Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne has invited union representatives to meet at the beginning of next week for talks, according to CFDT leader Laurent Berger.
“The anger begins to rise, even among the most peaceful protesters,” Berger told broadcaster TMC Tuesday evening after protests died down.

Major trade unions are still planning a further day of strikes and protests next Thursday.

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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )

March 28, 2023
Macron on the brink: How French pensions revolt could wreck his presidency

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PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron will face a moment of reckoning Thursday as lawmakers gear up for a final vote on the government’s deeply unpopular pension reform.
The controversial bill, a centerpiece of Macron’s second term, has sparked weeks of nationwide protests led by trade unions and faced intense criticism from both the far left and the far right in the National Assembly.
The French president wants to increase the legal age of retirement to 64 from 62 and extend contributions for a full pension in an effort to balance the accounts of France’s state pensions system — among the most generous in the world. According to projections from France’s Council of Pensions Planning, the finances of the pensions system are balanced in the short term but will go into deficit in the long term.

Despite government concessions on various aspects of the bill in recent weeks, opposition to the reform remains very high, with polls saying two-thirds of French citizens oppose it.
Speculation is running high that Macron might not have enough support in the National Assembly, and may choose a constitutional maneuver to bypass parliament — in a move that could unleash a political storm in France.
On Thursday, the French Senate and the National Assembly are expected to cast a crucial vote on the second reading of the bill, after the Senate voted in favor last week. The outcome will determine the shape of Macron’s second term and stands to bear heavily on his legacy.
The worst case: Macron loses the vote in parliament
Losing the parliamentary vote would be a stunning defeat for the French president, who pinned his bid for a second term on his promises to reform France’s pensions system. But political commentators have been speculating in recent days that Macron’s Renaissance party doesn’t have enough votes to pass the bill.
The French president lost its absolute majority in the National Assembly in parliamentary elections last June. He has since been forced into making ad-hoc deals with MPs from France’s conservative party Les Républicains. But the once-mighty conservatives appear split on the reform, despite assurances this week from their leader Olivier Marleix that there was “a clear majority” backing the bill.
A defeat in parliament would have seismic and long-term repercussions for Macron’s second term and it is likely that the president’s trusted lieutenant Prime Minister Elizabeth Borne would have to resign in such a scenario. Party heavyweights however say they will not shy away from seeking a vote.
“There will be a vote, we want a vote, everyone must take its responsibilities,” said Aurore Bergé, leader of the Renaissance group in the National Assembly.
“There can be an accident … we’ll manage it as we can,” admitted Jean-Paul Mattei, a centrist MP who belongs to Macron’s coalition, with reference to a defeat in parliament.
However, this is the most unlikely scenario as expectations are that the government will bypass a vote if they sense that they are short on votes.
Protestors hold an effigy of French President Emmanuel Macron, during a demonstration on the 8th day of strikes and protests across the country against the government’s proposed pensions overhaul in Paris on March 15, 2023 | Alain Jocard/AFP via Getty Images
Pretty bad: Macron bypasses parliament and loses credibility
In the face of a potential defeat in the National Assembly, Macron has a nuclear option: invoke article 49.3 of the French constitution. This mechanism allows the government to force through legislation without submitting it to a vote.
While the constitutional maneuver may seem like an easy way out, it’s a highly risky move as it allows lawmakers to table a motion of no confidence within 24 hours. Macron’s government has faced down motions of no confidence in the past but the stakes are much higher this time around.
Beyond surviving a motion of no-confidence, Macron and Borne will also come under fire for refusing to submit to the democratic process.
According to Frédéric Dabi, general director of the IFOP polling institute, the impact on public opinion if the government uses the 49.3 article as opposed to passing a tight vote in parliament would be “radically different.”
“Public opinions on the 49.3 article have changed … it is regarded as a tool to brutalize the National Assembly: it’s now seen as authoritarian instead of merely authoritative. People want more transparency, more democracy today,” he said.
France’s hardline unions would no doubt use this to stoke unrest and call for further strike action.
Trade union leader Laurent Berger has warned the government against using the 49.3 article, saying that it would be “incredible and dangerous.”
“Nobody can predict what will happen, the protest movement seems to be running out of steam, but if the government invokes article 49.3 it could be read as forcing the issue and may relaunch the protest movement,” said Dabi.
Still not great: Macron wins vote but faces mass protests
If the French president wins the vote in parliament, it’ll be seen as a victory but one that may completely drain his political capital, and whip up protests on the streets.
“It’ll be a victory for Macron, but it’ll only bear its fruit in the long term. In the short term, he’ll face a tense country where relations have become very strained,” said Chloé Morin, a writer and political analyst.
Trade union leader Berger has said that he would “take on board” the result of Thursday’s vote in parliament. But protests, which have been almost weekly since January, may continue nonetheless across the country in an effort to force the government into backing down and withdrawing the text.
Morin thinks it is unlikely there will be “an explosion of protests” after the vote as people are resigned to seeing it pass.
French police officers intervene during a protest by local council employees against the government’s retirement reform in front on the prefecture in Seine Saint-Denis, in Bobigny, a surburb of Paris on March 14, 2023 | Thomas Samson/AFP via Getty Images
“However, the protest movement might become more radical with lightning protests or sabotages, led by a minority in the citizens’ movement,” said Morin.
In October last year, industrial action in France’s refineries led to nationwide shortages at petrol stations, forcing the government to intervene in what was seen as Macron’s biggest challenge since his re-election last year.
There are dangerous precedents for Macron too. In December 2019, the government was forced to abandon a new green tax when faced with the explosive Yellow Vests protests that shook the political establishment.

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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )

March 15, 2023
Macron’s defiant show of force in parliament exposes a weakened president

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PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to bypass parliament and impose his deeply unpopular pensions reform has revealed an uncompromising and weakened leader who now faces severe backlash from emboldened opposition lawmakers and protesters.
Macron had vowed to abandon his top-down approach to politics and work with opposition parties during his second term. But when it comes to old-style politicking, Macron’s troops still have a lot to learn.
Despite intense lobbying efforts with MPs and frantic meetings at the Elysée on Thursday and in the weeks leading up to the decisive moment, the French president and his stalwart lieutenant Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne faced the likelihood of a defeat in parliament and decided instead to invoke a controversial constitutional tool — article 49.3 — to bypass a vote.

“My political interest would have been to submit to a vote … But I consider that the financial, economic risks are too great at this stage,” Macron privately told ministers according to a participant at the meeting.
Macron’s flagship pensions reform aims to increase the legal age of retirement to 64 from 62 and extend contributions for a full pension in an effort to balance the accounts of France’s state pensions system. Macron’s Renaissance party lost its absolute majority in the National Assembly in parliamentary elections last year, but the government was able to pass legislation in recent months with the support of the conservative party Les Républicains. It appears, however, that in the nail-biting run-up to the vote, there were concerns the president wasn’t able to rally enough troops in favor of the bill.
Arriving in parliament on Thursday, Borne faced scenes of anger and unrest in the National Assembly as she made her announcement triggering article 49.3. Far-left lawmakers from the France Unbowed party booed and chanted the national hymn the Marseillaise as far-right National Rally MPs shouted “Resign! Resign!” The speaker of the house was forced to suspend debates to allow Borne to make her speech.
“We can’t take the risk of seeing 175 hours of parliamentary debate come to nothing,” Borne said.
After the announcement, opposition MPs vowed to continue the battle against the reform, either in parliament, by supporting a motion of no-confidence, or in the streets.
The leader of the far-right National Rally, Marine Le Pen, slammed the move as a “personal failure” for Macron. “It’s his reform, he’s the one who proposed it and defended it during his campaign,” she told reporters at the National Assembly.
Spontaneous protests erupted Thursday evening in several cities across France, including Paris, where thousands of protestors descended on the Place de la Concorde after the move, clashing with police and setting fire to scaffolding. Trade unions called for a day of protest on March 23, undeterred by Macron’s decision to push through the legislation.
Article 49.3, ‘a denial of democracy’
Invoking article 49.3 is widely seen as a perilous move for the government as it allows MPs to put forward a motion of no-confidence within 24 hours and risks radicalizing protest movements in France. Trade unions have already shown great unity and led almost weekly marches and strikes, bringing out hundreds of thousands of citizens to the streets. In Paris, a strike by garbage collectors has seen an estimated 7,000 tons of garbage left on the street.
While the French constitution does allow governments to bypass parliament under certain conditions, its use is increasingly seen as undemocratic in France amid social tensions and the growing mistrust of politicians.
“The government’s use of the 49.3 procedure reflects the failure of this presidential minority,” Charles de Courson, a longtime independent lawmaker, told the BFMTV news channel.
“They are not just a minority in the National Assembly, they are a minority in the whole country. The denial of democracy continues,” he said.
Speaking ahead of the vote, Frédéric Dabi, general director of the IFOP polling institute, said that opinions on invoking article 49.3 — as opposed to passing a tight vote in parliament — are “radically different.”
“Public opinions on the 49.3 article have changed … it is regarded as a tool to brutalize the National Assembly: it’s now seen as authoritarian instead of merely authoritative. People want more transparency, more democracy today,” he said.
But the show of force also exposes a weakened president, who after having lost a majority in parliament and amid low popularity ratings, was unable to turn the tide of public opinion in France.
Surviving now, and later
In the short term, the government will have to survive several motions of no-confidence that are expected to be voted on Monday. Macron’s government has faced down motions of no confidence in the past but the stakes are much higher this time around.
“It’s maybe the first time that a motion of no-confidence may overthrow the government,” Green MP Julien Bayou told reporters, adding that the government was “prepared to wreak havoc” in the country.
Longer term, the move destroys prospects of a closer alliance between Macron’s Renaissance party and the conservative Les Républicains following a string of ad-hoc deals in recent months. In a worrying sign for Macron’s second term, as the debates on the pensions reform reached a climax, the leadership of the conservative party could not muster its own faithful despite concessions on the bill from the ruling party.
The great irony for Macron — needing partners and not finding them — is that he is the man who upended France’s political landscape by crushing the traditional left-wing and right-wing parties in 2017.
The dilemma for Macron is how he will get anything done in the next four yours of his presidency, given the reinvigorated opposition he is sure to face in a parliament dominated by the far left and the far right, and without reliable coalition partners.
Perhaps the only silver lining for Macron is the view from abroad.
“On the international scene, it’s a sign that France can make reforms, even if, frankly, many may think we are having a nervous breakdown over something so small, given that the government has made so many concessions [on the bill],” said Chloé Morin, a writer and political analyst ahead of the vote.
“Everybody knows that [reforming pensions] in France is difficult …That’s what’s at stake for Macron: he is a president who is building his legacy,” she said.

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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )

March 15, 2023
Macron pays high price in popularity over pension reform, survey shows

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Emmanuel Macron is paying a high price for his push on pension reform as a survey on Sunday showed the French president is facing a new low in popularity — as low as during the protests of the so-called Yellow Jackets.
As the French take to the streets to protest against Macron’s pension reform, 70 percent of respondents said they are dissatisfied with the president, according to the Ifop barometer published by Le Journal du Dimanche. Macron’s popularity rating fell by 4 points in one month, it showed.
Since December, Macron has suffered a substantial drop of 8 points, and he now sees only 28 percent satisfied and 70 percent dissatisfied, according to the poll carried out, Le Figaro emphasized, between March 9 and 16.
That is the same period as the negotiations that finally led the Elysée to shun parliament and impose the unpopular pension reforms via a special constitutional power, the so-called Article 49.3, which provides that the government can pass a bill without a vote at the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, after a deliberation at a Cabinet meeting.
The procedure has been used in the past by various governments. But this time it’s prompting a lot of criticism because of the massive public opposition to the proposed reform, which raises the legal retirement age from 62 to 64 years. Some media stress that recent opinion polls have shown that a majority of the French are opposed to this type of procedure.
“You have to go back to the end of the Yellow Jackets crisis in early 2019 to find comparable levels of unpopularity,” writes Le Journal du Dimanche commenting the survey. The outlet also stresses that dissatisfaction with Macron crosses all categories, the younger generations as well as the blue- and white-collar workers.
A total of 169 people, including 122 in Paris, were taken in custody for questioning on Saturday evening in France during demonstrations marred by tensions between the police and the protesters, according to French media citing figures communicated on Sunday by the Ministry of the Interior.

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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )

March 15, 2023
Macron faces no-confidence votes amid nationwide protests

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PARIS — Emmanuel Macron’s government faces several motions of no confidence in the National Assembly Monday after his government forced through a deeply unpopular pensions reform bill last week.
Protesters took to the streets in major cities over the weekend, after the government invoked a controversial constitutional maneuver to pass its pensions reform bill in what was widely seen as a move likely to inflame social unrest. Industrial action is expected to disrupt public transport, refineries, universities and waste collection this week, as trade unions hope to strong-arm the government into withdrawing the pensions reform.
On Saturday, more than 100 people were arrested in Paris after a demonstration by several thousand protesters against the reform turned violent.

The 573 lawmakers of the French National Assembly will vote on two motions of no confidence Monday which could trigger the resignation of Macron’s Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne and her government. Though the French president would not be forced to resign in case of a defeat, a successful motion of no confidence would trigger a deep political crisis for Macron.
On Saturday, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said the reform was “vital” for the country and called on MPs to “face their responsibilities,” in an interview with Le Parisien.
“There will be no majority to bring the government down, but it will be a moment of truth,” Le Maire said with the reference to the votes on Monday. “Is it a good idea to overthrow the government and cause political disorder over the pensions reforms? The answer is clearly no,” he added.
Macron wants to increase the legal age of retirement to 64 from 62 and extend contributions for a full pension in order to balance the accounts of the pensions system. The reform is a cornerstone of the French president’s second mandate and failure to pass it would have repercussions for the rest of his mandate.
Amid scenes of anger and rebellion in parliament, his trusted lieutenant Borne announced on Thursday the government had decided to invoke Article 49.3 of the constitution to pass legislation without a vote, putting an end to weeks of heated and acrimonious debate. Invoking Article 49.3, however, allowed lawmakers to table a motion of no confidence within 24 hours.
All eyes on the conservatives
Macron’s Renaissance party lost its majority in the National Assembly in parliamentary elections last year and has faced several motions of no confidence in recent months. In a sign of the deepening crisis in France, it is the first time that the several opposition parties have tabled a motion of no confidence together.
On Friday a small centrist opposition group submitted a cross-party motion supported by leftwing parties, which is also expected get the support of the far right National Rally, after RN leader Marine Le Pen announced that her party would vote for “all the motions of no confidence.”
“A vote on this motion will enable us to put an honorable end to a deep political crisis,” said the centrist MP Bertrand Pancher as he submitted the motion.
A police officer attempts to extinguish flames at the entrance of the town hall of the 4th arrondissement of Lyon | Jeff Pachoud/AFP via Getty Images
Macron’s opponents need the backing of 287 MPs to topple the government — a bar they are not likely to pass given the deep political divisions in parliament. The National Assembly is split between Macron’s Renaissance coalition, the far-right National Rally and the left-wing Nupes coalition.
In addition to getting the backing of the left and the far right, a cross-party motion would need the support of 27 conservative Les Républicains lawmakers to pass. But only 10 are planning to vote for the motion, said a conservative MP who wanted to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the topic in an interview with Playbook Paris.
MPs are also expected to vote on a second motion of no confidence submitted by the National Rally, that is widely seen as unlikely to pass.
If the government survives the votes on Monday, it will still face a wave of protests this week and the risk of more social unrest. On Friday, the hard left CGT trade union called for “visible actions” ahead of a day of nationwide protests and strikes planned for Thursday.

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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )

March 15, 2023
French Senate adopts pension reform as street protests continue

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The French Senate voted in favor of the controversial pension reform overnight, paving the way for a potential final adoption of the law on Thursday, as thousands of people continue to demonstrate across the country.
The widespread opposition to the retirement overhaul is a political test to French President Emmanuel Macron, whose liberal party has been struggling to pass the reform ever since it lost its majority in parliament last summer.
“A decisive step to bring about a reform that will ensure the future of our pensions. Totally committed to allow a final adoption in the next few days,” French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne tweeted after the vote.
The French government wants to change the retirement age from 62 to 64, with a full pension requiring 43 years of work as of 2027. The right-leaning Senate adopted the reform with 195 in favor and 112 against the measure.
Hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated across France on Saturday, and protests were expected to continue on Sunday. So far, strikes have disrupted sectors including public transport, oil refineries, schools and airports.
On Sunday, Laurent Berger — who heads the largest French labor union — said: “I call on parliamentarians to see what’s happening in their districts. … You can’t vote for a reform that’s rejected by so many in the workforce.”
During the presidential campaign, Macron vowed to reform the French pension system to bring it in line with other European countries like Spain and Germany, where the retirement age is 65 to 67 years old.
Official forecasts show that the French pensions system is financially in balance for now, but it’s expected to build up a deficit in the longer term.

French labor unions are calling for a “powerful day of strikes and demonstrations” on Wednesday, when lawmakers from the Senate and National Assembly are set to hold a small-group meeting to find a compromise on the pensions revamp. If they do reach an agreement, the law could be adopted on Thursday.
The government could also ultimately decide to adopt the revamp using an exceptional procedure that requires no parliamentary vote.

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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )

March 9, 2023