Despite the continuous demonstrations registered by France in recent days, President Emmanuel Macron decided to implement the pension reform despite not having the votes of the deputies.

The decision came after protests had to be quelled by police with water cannons and tear gas as protesters gathered at Place de la Concorde in Paris.

“I’m fed up. We’ve been mobilizing for weeks and the government’s only response is to use Article 49.3 of the Constitution, which allows parliament to bypass,” complained Ruben, a 20-year-old Political Science student.

French Senate approves pension reform, vote goes to National Assembly

Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne was in charge of the application of the constitutional article. “Until the last minute, we did everything to get a majority for this text (…) But the bills did not come out,” he explained to the chain TF1 Borne, confirming that he activated Article 49.3 in “joint agreement” with Macron.

This measure has been taken 100 times since 1958, but what it did now was increase tension and call for new demonstrations. The government’s idea is to postpone the retirement age from 62 to 64 by 2030 and to raise the requirement to contribute 43 years (and not 42 as hitherto) to a full pension until 2027 to get.

During the council of ministers approving the use of 49.3, Macron estimated that one could not “play with the future of the country” and that “the financial and economic risks were too great” to lose the vote, meeting participants said.

The only option the House of Representatives has to not implement the reform is to pass a motion of censure against the government, which can remove Borne from office.

If the censure motion fails and the reform eventually passes, the left-wing opposition is preparing an appeal to the Constitutional Council that would delay its promulgation and give opponents more time to use their latest patterns, such as calling for a referendum.