comment by
Kathrin Müller-Lance
Less than a year ago, Emmanuel Macron declared in a newspaper interview: “The French are fed up with reforms that come from above.” Now, nine months later, his government has pushed through just such a reform, amid boos in Parliament. The controversial constitutional article 49.3, which she used for this, makes it possible to bypass a vote in the National Assembly. The clause is seen as an instrument with which one can assert one’s power. In the case of the pension reform, however, it shows one thing above all: how powerless Macron and his ministers have become.