President Emmanuel Macron’s government survived a crucial no-confidence vote in France’s lower house of Parliament on Monday after his decision to force through a change in the national retirement age set off the most intense political turmoil since his re-election last year.
Because the motion failed, his signature pension bill, including a provision to raise the legal retirement age to 64 from 62, will now become law.
If the no-confidence vote had passed, Mr. Macron would have become only the second French president since 1958 to have his cabinet ousted by lawmakers, and he would have faced four more years in office as a wounded lame duck. A second no-confidence motion, filed by the far-right National Rally, failed as well, with only 94 lawmakers voting in favor.
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Lawmakers in the National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament, debated two no-confidence motions. One was put forward by independent lawmakers and backed by an alliance of opposition parties, and another was filed the far-right National Rally.
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The first motion received 278 votes, nine short of the 287 needed to pass. Nineteen mainstream conservative lawmakers from the Republican party voted in favor of the no-confidence motion, far more than expected. The second no-confidence motion received only 94 votes in favor.
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The close result reflected widespread anger at the overhaul to the pension law, at Mr. Macron for his apparent aloofness and at the way the measure was rammed through Parliament last week without a full vote on the bill itself. France’s upper house of Parliament, the Senate, passed the pension bill this month.
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In raising the retirement age, Mr. Macron has challenged a pillar of France’s cherished system of social protections. The French leader has said the change is necessary to raise the competitiveness of France’s economy and bring it more in line with its European partners.
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The logic of the reform, at a time when people are living longer and most European states have raised the retirement age to 65 or over, was unpersuasive to many French people fiercely attached to the country’s cherished work-life balance. Mr. Macron’s opponents argue that France’s pension system is in no immediate danger of insolvency and accuse him not considering other methods.
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Even though lawmakers rejected the no-confidence motions, demonstrators have vowed to battle on, and Mr. Macron may be even more vilified in the French streets. Demonstrators have vowed to continue protesting. Since Mr. Macron used a constitutional provision last week without a full vote of Parliament, spontaneous and sometimes violent protests have erupted around the country. The protests have raised fears of broader unrest such as that seen four years ago in the Yellow Vest movement that forced the government to repeal a contested fuel tax.
Constant Méheut contributed reporting.
