Macron gov passes bill on pension reform without vote from Parliament

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
16 Mar 2023 18:18
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President Emmanuel Macron met with his cabinet and decided that his government resort to Article 49.3.

French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, left, delivers a speech at the National Assembly in Paris, Thursday, March 16, 2023 (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla)

According to French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, the law extending the retirement age in France from 62 to 64 years old was adopted by the government without a vote in the parliament.

"We will not take the risk of many hours of debate, we will not risk the future of our pension system. This reform is necessary. I am committed to our social model, and this reform is the result of a compromise that the legislators of both houses of Parliament agreed to," Borne said at a meeting in the National Assembly of France.

"I'm ready to take responsibility for it. According to article 49.3 of the Constitution, the government assumes responsibility for this law."

The lower house's chairwoman, Yael Braun-Pivet, declared that "the law is regarded adopted from this point forward."

At the session to adopt the pension reform earlier in the day, French lawmakers sought the resignation of the Prime Minister.

According to the broadcaster BFMTV, the Council of Ministers had authorized the government to use Article 49.3 of the constitution - an article that allows the government to pass a law without a vote in parliament.

Moments before the final vote on the pension reform bill in the Parliament's lower house, Macron met with his cabinet to decide if the government could resort to the Article.

At the conclusion of the meeting, the government greenlighted the decision to resort to Article 49.3.

Last year, Prime Minister Elizabeth Borne resorted to Article 49.3 ten times to push the 2023 budget bill through the lower house of parliament.

The legal clause allowed Borne to pass the bill without lawmakers’ approval and justified her decision on the basis that her cabinet was working on a busy schedule.

Understanding the pension reform

The pension reform bill being championed by the government in France is aimed at balancing the country's pension financial system without having to raise taxes, government spokesperson Olivier Veran said earlier Wednesday.

The bill provides for gradually increasing the national retirement age from 62 to 64 years and canceling special regimes for numerous professions that require hard labor, drawing the ire of the French people and sparking a wave of demonstrations that took France by storm.

"Why are we carrying out this [pension] reform? In order to keep out distributive [pension] system, not to raise taxes, not to decrease pensions and increase debt. All we do is aimed at that. We stick to this aim and keep it," Veran told French radio station Europe 1.

Furthermore, the government spokesperson stressed that the retirement age was being raised so that Paris could "look the French people in the eye in five, 10, 15 years" and tell them their pension contributions and the pension system would guarantee them "decent income" in retirement.

Veran also underlined that adopting the pension reform would ensure the country's financial balance by 2030 "without a shadow of doubt".

The city of lights turned into the city of garbage after strikes hit the country against President Emmanuel Macrons' proposed pension reforms that the French Senate passed on Saturday, despite massive unpopularity.

Senators passed the reforms by 195 votes to 112, bringing the reforms one step closer to becoming law.

With another week of protests and strikes looming ahead, more than 5,400 tons of trash remained uncollected on the streets of Paris as of Monday, according to an assessment by Paris City Hall.

The bill got a critical push forward since the French Senate approved it, despite the huge protests taking place, which created chaos in the transportation sector and left large piles of uncollected garbage.

“Strike action has mostly hit France’s capital, but garbage collectors in other parts of the country, such as Rennes, have also walked out,” reported The Local.

More strikes and demonstrations are yet to come, as the country's eight largest unions called for walkouts to continue until today.

Garbage collectors and drivers currently retire at the age of 57, according to the powerful CGT union. They would have to work two more years under the reform plans; the plan still grants an early retirement for those who work under harsh working conditions.

Despite polls consistently showing growing opposition to the reform and Macron's own popularity dwindling, the French President insisted on keeping a key campaign pledge he made when he swept to power in 2017 and before his reelection in April 2022.