French Government to Face No-Confidence Vote After Pension Push

French president Emmanuel Macron’s government is set to face no-confidence motions following its decision to push through its pension reform bill without a vote.

(Bloomberg) — French president Emmanuel Macron’s government is set to face no-confidence motions following its decision to push through its pension reform bill without a vote. 

The LIOT party said it filed a motion on Friday and that it had the backing of legislators from other parliamentary groups. If a no-confidence motion is approved, it would nullify the pension bill and force prime minister Elisabeth Borne to resign. Macron would then have to appoint a new government.

Borne on Thursday used a constitutional clause known as 49.3 after it became clear she couldn’t muster enough votes in the National Assembly to pass the government’s pension bill, which seeks to raise the minimum retirement age to 64 from 62. 

That clause, when used, in turn grants parliamentarians the right to request a no-confidence vote. Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National party also filed a no-confidence motion on Friday.

Any vote on a no-confidence motion can’t take place for at least 48 hours after being filed, pushing it to early next week at the soonest. It would take at least 287 votes in favor for a motion to pass, a total unlikely to be met since that would require almost all members of parliament not in Macron’s party or one of its allies to support it. 

Read more: Macron’s Pension Push May Herald End of His Domestic Agenda

Even if Borne survives the no-confidence vote, Macron’s government still faces delays in enacting retirement reform. Opposition politicians can request a review by the constitutional court and use other procedures that could delay the bill from becoming law for months. 

“We are entering an era of big uncertainty,” said Bernard Sananes, head of Elabe, a Paris-based polling company. He added that he expects protests to become more radical. “There is a real chance that unions will lose control of the movement and violence will increase.”

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