French pension reform: “That was too much injustice!”

The protests against the pension reform in France continued at the weekend. Today a decision is to be made as to whether the reform will be passed without Parliament being passed. But would that break the resistance?

The waste incineration plant in Issy-les-Moulineaux, on the south-western outskirts of Paris, was again blocked and struck this weekend. A young man, full beard, lumberjack shirt, Docker cap explains calmly but resolutely: “What worries me is the injustice of this reform. The same applies to the timing: We are currently experiencing a purchasing power crisis. And the people are hungry. Their time is being stolen, her holidays with the kids, ultimately her life. There is always something to save. Tax evasion in France – that’s 100 billion euros a year! Get the 100 billion first and then get on with your pensions!”

protests across the country

After expensive concessions, President Emmanuel Macron’s reform will bring in only twelve instead of the originally planned 18 billion euros a year. But it brings people to the barricades.

In Paris, there is a ban on demos for Concorde Square, so the protesters stormed shopping centers in the Hallenviertel, for example. Add to that the garbage strike and over 10,000 tons of garbage on the sidewalks. A third fewer flights at Paris-Orly airport. Fewer regional trains and fewer TGVs are running at the country’s train stations.

Fire broke out in a district town hall in Lyon. Production has come to a standstill in the largest French refinery in Normandy. Queues are forming at the gas stations in the Rhône Valley.

Anger at Article 49.3

The bone of contention is not only the reform itself, but Article 49.3 of the constitution. The government applied this so that the text can go through parliament without a vote, provided the government survives votes of no confidence.

Parliament leader Yael Braun-Pivet does not think that the government’s actions are equivalent to defeat. No consensus was found on the pension reform – the article that has existed since the time of General de Gaulle is there for such cases. “It was devised against political blockades and in the event of a relative majority. That’s exactly what we have right now. It has been used 100 times by all political forces right and left. And although our constitution has been amended 24 times since then, nobody has worked on this article jolted.”

Dissenters among the Républicains

Perhaps because no government has yet fallen over it. But he heats up tempers. In Nice, the windows of a Member’s office were smashed and a gallows smeared on the facade along with the words: “No confidence vote or cobblestone!”

Not just anyone was affected, but the leader of the conservative Les Républicains, Eric Ciotti. He had stated that his party would not express no confidence in the government. But there are dissenters like Pierre Cordier, who went to his constituency in the Ardennes again at the weekend. He doesn’t want to stick to the party line.

“I am very much in favor of pension reform, but not for this one. There have been many changes to the text, including positive ones. But there is room for improvement on other points, such as taking into account work difficulties. And that’s why people say to me here : Honorable Member, stand firm!”

Opponents need 287 votes

One of the votes of no confidence could only go through if 26 other conservatives, i.e. almost half of the Républicains, do the same and if the entire opposition votes unanimously in the affirmative. There are two of them, one from the right Rassemblement National and another from a centre-left block. At 4 p.m. they are to be voted on in Parliament. With 287 votes in favor, the government would fall and its pension reform would be null and void.

President Macron had held back publicly except for crisis meetings. On Sunday evening, in a low mood, he let it be known: he hoped that the pension law would end its democratic path through the authorities and that all members of parliament would be protected.

If the no-confidence motions fail, the pension reform is deemed to have been accepted. But would that break the resistance?

On the contrary, says the young striker with the full beard in Issy: “I don’t know if people will give up. I hope not. Because applying Article 49.3 was the best stupid thing they could have done. That gives it Demos, the popular uprising, new vigour. That was too much injustice!”