background
Status: 03/16/2023 5:58 p.m
France’s government has pushed through the controversial pension reform – with the help of constitutional article 49.3, also known as “Big Bertha”. This item has been used many times before.
It has long been suspected in France that President Emmanuel Macron could use Article 49.3 to push through the planned pension reform. It came to that. But the use of the “Big Bertha”, as Article 49.3 is also called in allusion to a German gun of the same name from the First World War, is likely to trigger outrage in large parts of the public.
“Big Bertha” is considered the government’s crowbar or joker. With the paragraph, she can enforce a law without a parliamentary vote – but doing so risks one or more votes of no confidence and ultimately her own survival.
The article has been used more than 40 times since 1958, the year the current French constitution came into force. So far, all governments have survived the related no-confidence motions.
Council of Ministers must agree
In order to enforce the constitutional article, the Council of Ministers must first give the go-ahead. The Prime Minister then announces in the National Assembly that he or she will take responsibility for the law in question with his or her government – just like Elisabeth Borne is doing today.
One or more motions of no confidence can then be made in a 24-hour period. If the government survives, the law will be passed. If the government fails, new elections will follow.
Macron used to be skeptical himself
Article 49.3 can only be used for the budget and one other bill per session – but then for all voting stages in the National Assembly. When incumbent President Macron was Economy Minister under his predecessor Francois Hollande, he was skeptical about using the article.