France Live: No-confidence Votes as Fury Grows Over Pensions

The War Between France and America: a Tale of Two Particles and One Fate: David Andelman, CNN’s New Foreign Correspondent

The president has been accused of being arrogant and out of touch, since he became president. Perceived as “the president of the rich,” he stirred resentment for telling a jobless man he only needed to “cross the street” to find work and by suggesting some French workers were “lazy.”

Mr.Macron’s instinct is to play offense, but he has been pushed into a defensive crouch. His government, at enormous cost, has capped gas and electricity price increases that would otherwise hit 120 percent by next year. It has requisitioned refinery workers in an attempt to break a crippling strike that has led to mile-long lines at gas stations.

David Andelman is a CNN contributor and author of the book A Red Line in the Sand: Diplomacy, Strategy, and the History of Wars That Might Still happen. He formerly was a foreign correspondent for The New York Times and Paris correspondent for CBS News. The views expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion at CNN.

The Paris Street Fire: When the Censorship Problem becomes a Political Constant in the New Paris Regime, as Seen by the American Visitor

The American visitor, who was in Paris for a couple of months, was walking home from dinner when she saw the cars on fire. At Rue Royale, they were hurling tear gas. To get to my hotel in the Rue des Capucines, the street was on fire from both ends! Is Paris burning? Yes, in my street. I can smell smoke in my room.

Even though the next elections are not for another four, the political sharks are still smelling blood in the water.

Votes will be held on Monday night to decide the future of both the unpopular pension reform, and the government itself, which is at risk of being pushed back to 64 from 62.

The public displays of displeasure may weigh heavily on his future decisions. The spontaneous, sometimes violent protests that erupted in Paris and across the country in recent days have contrasted with the largely peaceful demonstrations and strikes previously organized by France’s major unions.

Buses, subways and public works across France shuddered to a halt, barricades went up in streets and were set ablaze. Garbage collectors walked off, protesting the rise in their retirement to 59 from 57 — among the many exceptions for earlier full retirement due to the nature of their jobs. More than 7,000 tons of garbage have piled up on the streets of Paris — a pungent smorgasbord for the city’s rat population that, among the world’s most prolific, is said to be thriving.

If neither motion passes, the cabinet stays and the bill stands. But if one of the motions gathers enough votes — more than half of the total number of lawmakers elected to the lower house — Mr. Macron’s cabinet will have to resign and the pension bill will be rejected, a huge blow to the president even though he would remain in office.

The lower house of parliament lost the majority in June in favor of the other political parties. He said at the time that his government wanted to “legislate in a different way,” based on compromises with a range of political groups.

Either way, he would keep his job until his term is done in 2027, and retain plenty of power over defense, European affairs and foreign policy. As commander-in-chief of the armed forces, he can make decisions about France’s support for Ukraine and other global issues without parliamentary approval.

The President is quite correct in pointing to the strains going forward on the entire national budget if the retirement age remains unchanged. When the Fifth Republic was created, there were more than two workers for every retiree. Without an adjustment, by 2020, the figure would be 1.7 workers per retiree, and over the next decade, that number would be barely 1.5 workers. The nation will likely be going increasingly into deficit, or taxes will be forced to skyrocket.

Protests against Macron’s far-right pension bill have intensified since the French parliament failed to pass a single no-confidence motion on Thursday

After pushing through a number of budget bills, the government failed to get a single no-confidence motion brought against it. Bruno Le Maire characterized the opposition as a low-class carriage of far- left, far-right and independent lawmakers in a newspaper interview.

The first motion, put forward by the far-right National Rally, is not expected to receive much support beyond the party’s own ranks. The other, filed by a small group of independent lawmakers and backed by a broad alliance of opposition parties, poses a greater threat.

While neither motion is seen as likely to get the required number of votes — at least 287 — to succeed, anger against Mr. Macron has intensified, and speculation over a possible surprise outcome is rampant after three days of volatility and heightened tension in French politics.

The decision to push the bill through the National Assembly without a vote on Thursday set off angry, often peaceful, protests across the country and ended in violent confrontations between police and protesters.

In Paris demonstrators lit smoke bombs at a shopping mall. They attempted to break into the town hall in Lyon. They blocked the highway in the west of Nantes.

Constituency offices of lawmakers favorable to the pension bill were also scrawled with graffiti and pelted with rocks. Transportation, teacher and garbage collector strikes are still continuing in some areas.

Protesters lit a large fire in view of the National Assembly building on Friday night, and Raphal Masmejean said that if the motion is not passed people will continue to fight.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/03/20/world/france-macron-no-confidence-vote/france-macron-pension-no-confidence-vote

An angry leader in France tells protesters to rejoin parliament: “The motion or the cobblestone,” a warning letter to the president

The representatives of the mainstream conservative Republican party are in high demand. The independent lawmakers who filed the no-confidence motion asked for about 30 Republicans in the National Assembly to vote against it.

Charles de Courson said that all is in the hands of Republicans who are hostile to the reform.

On Saturday night, protesters threw stones at the office of the Republican party president in Nice, on the French Riviera, and left a message scrawled on a wall: “The motion or the cobblestone.”

Since then, conservative lawmakers have agreed to support some bills that fit with their own policies. Efforts to compromise may be stopped because of the tensions over the pension plan.

But Aurélien Pradié, a Republican lawmaker from the rural Lot area of southwestern France who opposes the pension bill and has become a leader of sorts for party rebels, announced on Monday morning that he would vote in favor of the no-confidence motion.

On Sunday, Mr. Macron appealed for calm, while also saying he wanted the pension bill to run its course in a respectful manner.

One study by the Elabe polling institute published on Monday by the BFMTV news channel found that 68 percent of those surveyed felt “angry” about the decision to push the bill through without a vote, and that the same percentage wanted a no-confidence motion against the government to succeed.

The head of the French Democratic Confederation of Labor, Laurent Berger, said in an interview with the newspaper that the pension reform was a disaster, and he urged him not to implement it.

“We have gone from a feeling of scorn to a feeling of anger” because of the decision to push the bill through without a vote, Mr. Berger said, even as he condemned the violent outbursts that marred protests in Paris and other cities last week. Labor unions have called for a ninth official protest on Thursday, but have been mostly absent from the weekend melees.

The decision to push the bill through without a vote was called sacrosanct by Hélne Aldeguer.

The president’s refusal to pass the pension reform bill in France under the Article 49.3 Constituent-Relational-Protection Law has alienated the French public

A parody photo of the President sitting on piles of garbage has appeared online in France. It is a reference to the trash going uncollected in Paris as well as what French people think about their leader.

His move to force the pension reform bill through without a vote had angered the political opposition and could hurt his government’s ability to pass legislation for the rest of his term.

The photo was put up at the protests after the bill was passed without a vote at the National Assembly.

In his first public comment on the issue since then, the 45-year-old leader expressed his wish for the bill to “reach the end of its democratic path in an atmosphere of respect for everyone,” according to a statement Sunday from his office provided to The Associated Press.

Now, Macron’s government has alienated citizens “for a long time” to come by using the special authority it has under Article 49.3 of the French Constitution to impose a widely unpopular change, said Brice Teinturier, deputy director general of the Ipsos poll institute.

He said that the situation’s winners are Marine Le Pen and her National Rally party and France’s labor unions. Le Pen was runner-up to Macron in the country’s last two presidential elections.

Macron repeatedly said he was convinced the French retirement system needed modifying to keep it financed. He believes that increasing the already heavy tax burden and decreasing the pensions of current retirees is not realistic alternatives.

Macron notably hopes to propose new measures designed to bring France’s unemployment rate down to 5%, from 7.2% now, by the end of his second and final term.

France’s strong presidential powers are a legacy from Gen. Charles de Gaulle’s desire to have a stable political system for the Fifth Republic he established in 1958.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/03/20/1164639232/emmanuel-macron-faces-no-confidence-votes-as-pressure-builds-from-pension-protes

A remark on Macron’s proposal for the dissolution of the Assembly and the retirement age of the parliament, a comment on Panot

And Mathilde Panot, a lawmaker from the leftist Nupes coalition, said with sarcasm Thursday that it was a “very good” idea for Macron to disband the Assembly and trigger an election.

“I believe it would be a good occasion for the country to reaffirm that yes, they want the retirement age down at 60,” Panot said. The Nupes are always available to govern.