The reform of the pension law was already unpopular in France, but the fact that President Emmanuel Macron resorted to the constitutional “atomic bomb” to pass it without a vote in the National Assembly added to the displeasure. This Friday, protests intensified and the night threatened to bring the violence already registered the day before, as 310 people were arrested across the country. Both the Élysée Palace and the government of Élisabeth Borne, the target of two censure motions, fear a repeat of the yellow vest protests of 2018 and 2019.
In the early evening, a bonfire had been lit on the Place de la Concorde in Paris, a few hundred meters from the Assembly. Thousands of protesters gathered there, with police intervening to try to disperse the crowd by 8 p.m. – who responded by throwing stones and other projectiles, according to the Le monde. Protests were repeated in other cities, with authorities seeking to contain the violence to prevent it from reaching the scale of five years ago.
Borne invoked article 49.3 of the Constitution on Thursday to impose by decree the amendment of the pension law, which, among other things, provides for an increase in the retirement age from 62 to 64 years. In response, the opposition tabled two motions of censure: one of them from the LIOT group (French for liberties, independents and overseas territories), also signed by the left-wing coalition NUPES, and the other from the extreme right of the National Assembly.
Discussion of both should take place on Monday, but neither is allowed to continue. Despite losing its majority in the Assembly in the June elections, after Macron’s re-election to a second term, the government would need the support of nearly half of the group “The Republicans” to succeed . This scenario is considered unlikely.
Until then, the French promise to stay on the streets and the nuisance will worsen due to strikes in various sectors. According to the authorities of the French capital, they are about to remove ten thousand tons of rubbish from the streets. The government says the municipality can ask for minimum services, but the autarchy refuses – in solidarity with the strikers.
But other industries should intensify the fight, and two refineries may be forced to halt work. More problems in air traffic are expected for Monday due to the strike of air traffic controllers and the situation in the rail sector is also deteriorating after an improvement today and tomorrow. Despite the strikes, the unions want to stay away from violence and are trying to call for calm.
Source: DN
