The President of the French Government, Emmanuel Macron, faces one of its most difficult weeks starting on Monday. With his popularity at a minimum, tomorrow, Monday, the opposition will present two motions of no confidence against him and on Thursday, the unions have called for the ninth day of strikes to try to get him to reverse his plans to approve the pension reform that, among other issues, it would lengthen the retirement age from 62 to 64 years.

The general secretary of the second union in France, Philippe Martinez (CGT)accused President Emmanuel Macron this Sunday of not taking seriously the warnings of the union organizations, “The president did not take us seriously when we alerted him that the discontent was deep, that the rejection of the pension reform was very majority,” said Martinez in an interview on the BFM channel.

The group of eight union organizations that opposes the pension reform requested a meeting with Macron by letter on the 9th, in a message in which he warned of “an explosive situation” if the Government did not withdraw its plan.

But the French president did not receive the union leaders and the Government approved the pension reform by decree last Thursday, given the lack of a majority in the National Assembly, for which reason tomorrow, Monday, he will face two motions of censure presented by various parliamentary groups of the opposition

Since then, protests have taken place every day in French cities, in some cases with violent episodes such as burning garbage containers or destroying street furniture.

The letter to the Elysee “was an alert” but “it was not taken seriously by the president,” Martinez insisted. “When anger is sown…” he added.

However, the union leader totally distanced himself from the violent episodes, which have not reached serious levels either.

“We have always condemned violence outside of demonstrations (…) The majority have developed calmly,” he stressed, before insisting that violent acts “have nothing to do with the trade union world.”

FRANCE PENSIONS
The Macron government faces two motions on Monday on the verge of an unprecedented crisis

Antonio Torres del Cerro, Paris, Mar 19 (EFE) of the truth, when he faces two motions of censure whose approval will depend on the votes of a divided conservative party.

The future of the prime minister appointed by Macron, Élisabeth Borne, will be in the hands of the 61 parliamentarians from Los Republicanos (centre-right), who could tip the result, taking into account that Macron’s party and its allies have a relative majority. .

Currently, at least 287 parliamentarians would be needed to overthrow the Executive -half plus one-, out of a total of 573 seats (there are four vacant seats). The conference of the presidents of the Assembly will meet at 3:30 p.m. local time (1:30 p.m. GMT) and, if it approves the agenda, the two motions will be put to the vote.

The extreme right of Marine Le Pen presents one, while the other is from the small group LIOT (centrists and regionalists), who have the support of the entire left grouped in the Nupes coalition.

Although the leadership of the LR has given instructions not to support the motions – the own parliamentary headquarters in Nice of its leader, Éric Ciotti, was vandalized tonight as a form of pressure -, they had also asked their 61 parliamentarians to support the unpopular reform that raises the retirement age from 62 to 64 on March 16. Unsuccessfully.

Half of the LR deputies announced that they would not support it in the chamber and Macron’s Executive preferred not to risk a vote, thus deciding to activate constitutional article 49.3, already used on several occasions by different governments and which allows certain bills to be approved. law without a vote in the Assembly.

According to calculations by the press, there are already four wayward conservative deputies. It would take at least another 23 for Borne to present his resignation and that of his ministers to Macron, who would probably be doomed to dissolve the Assembly and convene new legislative ones (the last ones date from June 2022).

Since the establishment of the French V Republic in 1958, only one motion of no confidence has been approved, in 1962.

MACRON’S POPULARITY LOWES,While Macron’s popularity has reached lows since he assumed the presidency in 2017 -currently only 28% approve of him, at the levels of the “yellow vests” crisis at the end of 2018/2019-, the social protests they begin to be more unpredictable and volatile.

Since the final adoption of the reform, on the 16th, they have intensified and have often gone to the margins of left-wing parties and unions. Many have been summoned on social networks.

This spontaneous and leaderless character evokes the method of the “yellow vest” revolt.

Last night, in the third straight night of spontaneous demonstrations, there were at least a hundred arrests across France, mostly in Paris.

Parallel to the unrest in the streets, the union strikes against the reform continue their course. Several refineries are blocked, such as the one in Le Havre, the largest in the country. Although there is no consolidated data yet, several gas stations in the Lyon and Marseille region are already suffering from a lack of fuel.

For its part, the impacts of the stoppages in the collection of garbage in Paris are being felt. Despite the fact that the Government has imposed the return of some workers for public health reasons, thousands of tons of garbage still accumulate on the sidewalks.

The Paris City Council, which supports the strike and does not cooperate with the government, estimated that the number of waste has stabilized at 10,000 tons. EFE, atc/fpa

At least 122 peopleaccording to estimates by the French Ministry of the Interior, ended arrested this Saturday in Paris during the day of protests against the pension reform imposed by the Government of President Emmanuel Macron and presented on Thursday resorting to Article 49.3 of the Constitution, which implies the approval of any rule without voting as long as a motion of no confidence is not imposed.

The mobilizations took place this Saturday throughout France, with special incidence in Paris, where at 8:00 p.m. the Motorized Brigade for the Repression of Violent Action (BRAV-M) of the Police intervened and used tear gas against “rioters who are trying to create barricades and set fire to rubbish bins,” according to police. “In the presence of a multitude of thugs, the organizers have asked to dissolve the demonstration,” said the same source.

The day in Paris was marked by a controversial ban on demonstrations in the Place de la Concorde and the Champs-Élysées due to the risk to public order and security.

There were also mobilizations with thousands of attendees in cities such as Marseille, Toulouse, Nantes or Gap, where there were also arrests.

The unions have called a ninth day of strikes and demonstrations for next Thursday.

Demonstrators protesting in Paris. Photo: EFE

Motion of no confidence against Macron

On the other hand, the opposition continues to criticize the government, which they even say is “not respecting the constitution” and “governing against the people”, in the words of Antoine Léaument, a deputy from La France Unsubmissive.

For him Monday a new appointment is scheduled for debate the text of the reform with the Republicans at the point of view, since it will be necessary to see what they vote before the text as well as before the two motions of censure that have been filed against the Macron government. The vote of Los Republicanos would be necessary to carry out any of the two motions.

Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire has already warned them that it is “a joke” that conservative deputies can vote alongside the extreme left.

Source: Eitb

Ricardo

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