At Wednesday’s protest in Paris, a protester held a sign with a picture of Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne and a bad omen with a pun in English: “Borne I’m dead“, follow the fate of the head of government. Little did the Parisian know that the prime minister would become the protagonist of the pension reform the next day, invoking an article of the constitution that prohibits the ignoring of the vote of deputies.
Only by approving the reform after deliberation by the council of ministers, Borne risks deputies burying the reform and signing his political death in the censure motion to be debated this Friday in the National Assembly.
There are countries whose constitutional and federal architecture makes it difficult or nearly impossible to enact reform – and then there’s France, where protest is the sport of choice. Pension reform is a political battle older than many who have taken to the streets. Already in 1995, Prime Minister Alain Juppé, under the chairmanship of Jacques Chirac, tried to increase the number of years of social security cuts in order to retire, leading to the largest movement of social struggle since May 1968, ending with the abandonment of the plan.
In 2010, Nicolas Sarkozy took to the streets and the plan to raise the minimum retirement age from 60 to 62 went ahead. François Hollande partially reversed the measure in 2012, but two years later he finally had to introduce a gradual increase in the number of working years until retirement.
Emmanuel Macron tried to revise the system by presenting a universal point-based system. But after the protests of the yellow vests, the pandemic broke out, so that he eventually kept the plan in a drawer of the Élysée Palace. So far, the government has presented a plan to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 by 2030 and the requirement to contribute for 43 years to receive a full pension by 2027.
The loss of an absolute majority in parliamentary elections last June weakened Macron’s move and questioned his promises to liberalize the French economy and maintain sustainable social security.
When Macron learned that not even his party had all the votes, he decided to apply an article that exempts the reform from being subject to a parliamentary vote.
According to French media, after learning that within his party, as well as in the partner of the occasion, the Republicans, there were deputies who would vote against, the president held several meetings on Wednesday evening where he decided on the application of the controversial Article 49.3 of the Constitution.
On Thursday morning, the Senate still approved the legislation, but it did not make it to the House. “We cannot risk that 175 hours of parliamentary debate will come to naught,” said Élisabeth Borne, after activating Article 49.3, after an emotional session in the National Assembly, in which left-wing deputies put up posters with the phrase “No to 64 years old ,” sang The Marseillesand it was in the midst of the turmoil that Borne announced the decision, the 11th time she has activated the article since becoming minister and the 100th since 1958.
Despite the calculations of political analysts pointing to the survival of Borne and his government in the motion of censure, the trade union centers have already announced that they will continue the fight on the streets.
Source: DN
