(Paris) The French government, targeted on Friday by several motions of censure, is plunged into a political crisis the day after its passage in force on the pension reform, which has amplified social anger in recent weeks and triggered unrest in several regions. from the country.
In Paris, some 200 demonstrators brought together by the powerful CGT union obstructed traffic on Friday morning on the Paris ring road.
Thursday evening, a spontaneous demonstration of a few thousand people had degenerated around the Place de la Concorde, not far from the National Assembly, resulting in more than 300 arrests.
Sporadic demonstrations, such as blockades of high schools, took place at various points in France the day after President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to resort to the weapon of Article 49.3 of the Constitution on Thursday on this very unpopular pension reform. , against which many French people have mobilized since January 19.
The French government has chosen to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 in response to the financial deterioration of pension funds and the aging of the population
France is one of the European countries where the legal retirement age is the lowest, without the pension systems being completely comparable.
This recourse to 49.3 is almost unanimously considered a setback for Emmanuel Macron, who has bet a lot of his political credit on this key reform of his second five-year term.
This procedure allows the adoption of a text without a vote in the National Assembly, unless a motion of censure were to overthrow the government.
The government of Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne is on hot coals as the oppositions will table one or more motions of censure on Friday before 10:30 a.m. (Eastern time).
One of them, tabled by a small centrist parliamentary group unknown to the general public – the group Libertés, Indépendants Outre-Mer, et Territoires (LIOT) – is the one that could potentially cause the most problems for the government on its side. transpartisan.
While encouraging “spontaneous mobilizations throughout the country”, the leader of the radical left Jean-Luc Mélenchon (LFI) announced that his party would “withdraw” its motion of censure in favor of the LIOT group, which is more likely to win. to be voted on by right-wing deputies unfavorable to pension reform.
The National Rally party (RN-extreme right), which also plans to table a motion of censure, also said it would vote for all motions.
The fate of the government, which only has a relative majority in the Assembly, could therefore be in the hands of the sixty or so deputies of the traditional right-wing group Les Républicains (LR). If their votes are added to those of all the other opposition deputies, they will reach the absolute majority of the 577 deputies and bring down the executive.
The boss of the LR group, Éric Ciotti, however warned Thursday that they will not vote “no motion of censure”. Bringing down the government therefore seems a difficult objective for the opposition, but slingers could give the executive a cold sweat.
Motions will be voted on at least 48 hours after they are tabled, probably on Monday.
In the meantime, the ministers are standing up. “We are destined to continue to govern,” said government spokesman Olivier Véran.
And in the street, the actions of opponents of the reform continue.
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin decided to send police reinforcements to Rennes (West) on Friday, where violence was committed the day before by furious demonstrators.
General meetings of certain trade union branches (energy, railway workers) are scheduled for the afternoon to try to manage the renewed mobilization caused by the political thunderclap on Thursday.
The intersyndicale plans “local local rallies” this weekend as well as a ninth day of strikes and demonstrations on Thursday, March 23, and union officials have warned of excesses from their base.
The various opinion polls show that the French are mostly hostile to it, even if the number of demonstrators in the streets and strikers has stagnated or declined over time.
In Paris, the anger also manifests itself via the garbage cans which have not been picked up for several days in certain districts by the garbage collectors on strike.
In this world capital of tourism, garbage continues to pile up in smelly mountains and the authorities are preparing requisitions to clear some of it.
