PARIS — President Emmanuel Macron survived a key vote Monday that could have collapsed his government and killed off his flagship pension plan, the cause of countrywide protests and strikes.
The no-confidence vote received 278 votes in the National Assembly, falling short of the 287 needed to pass.
Macron’s long-promised plan to raise the national retirement age from 62 to 64 has sparked weeks of national strikes and demonstrations, and police have clashed with protesters in cities across the country.
Police said some 4,000 protesters gathered in the Place d’Italie in southern Paris on Saturday, many chanting “Macron, resign!” as trash bins were set alight and officers responded by firing tear gas. More than 160 people were arrested across the country, the Interior Ministry said Sunday.
Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, Macron’s appointed majority leader, and her Cabinet of ministers would have had to stand down if the motion received enough votes Monday.
The president himself was always safe: Macron was re-elected for a second and final term last summer, albeit on a much-reduced majority thanks to a surge in support for the far-right National Assembly, and he can appoint a new government without the need for an election unless he chooses to hold one.
But if the government falls, so does the pension bill, leaving the president and his flagship economic policy floundering.
The Élysée Palace said Sunday that Macron wanted the law “to be able to go to the end of its democratic journey with respect for all,” pointing out there had been more than 170 hours of debate and several concessions already made in a revised bill.
Macron’s centrist alliance still has the most seats in the National Assembly and political commentators in France didn’t expect the bill to pass.
Macron and Borne have already enraged critics and trade unions by forcing the pension plan through Parliament by invoking Article 49.3 of the Constitution allowing the legislation to pass without a…
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