Fresh protests have erupted in France after President Emmanuel Macron‘s government today survived two no-confidence votes – one by just nine votes – over hugely unpopular pension reforms.
Demonstrators took to the streets Monday night, marching with banners that said ‘passed by force’, after the poll in the National Assembly was triggered by the head of state raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 without a parliamentary vote.
The first no-confidence motion, by centrists, needed 287 votes to pass but got 278 – a tiny margin of victory for Mr Macron. A second by the far-right won just 94 votes.
It means that the hugely unpopular pension reform will now pass straight into law, but further opposition is inevitable.
Rioters have been on the streets of France since Mr Macron ignored the National Assembly last Thursday, so as to bring the new legislation in by presidential decree.
Demonstrators took to the streets Monday night, marching with banners that said ‘passed by force’, after the poll in the National Assembly was triggered by the head of state raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 without a parliamentary vote
A pile of rubbish burns during a demonstration in Paris on Monday night
French firefighters extinguish burning garbage bins after a demonstration in Paris on Monday night, the day the National Assembly debated and voted on two motions of no-confidence against the French government
As the censure motion result was read out, opposition MPs from the Left-wing France Unbowed party held up printed signs saying ‘RIP’, while shouting ‘Resignation! Resignation!’
The narrow vote is a personal disaster for Mr Macron’s prime minister, Elisabeth Borne, who had tried to rally a parliamentary majority for the legislation.
Numerous politicians had been threatened with the guillotine if they supported President Macron’s government.
Police said macabre messages had been sent to MPs preparing for the crucial poll.
‘I am now receiving death threats,’ said Agnes Evren, MP and vice-president of the Republicans party.
She said anonymous tormenters had evoked the guillotining of King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette in Paris during the so-called ‘Terror’ that followed the 1789 Revolution.
‘These extremist refuse debate – they have no respect for their political adversaries and are openly inspired by the Terror,’ Ms Evren Tweeted.
‘Do not underestimate the danger any longer. Every threat of this type will now be the subject of a complaint.’
Emmanuel Macron, pictured here on Thursday at the foreign ministry in Paris, has pushed through pension reforms without a vote
Protestors march next to a fire during a demonstration on Monday night after the French government survived two no-confidence motions in parliament
Far-left lawmakers hold papers reading ’64 years. It is no’, ‘appointment in the street’ and ‘we are continuing’ at today’s confidence vote
Protesters walk past a damaged bus shelter which reads as ‘angry’, during a demonstration in Dijon, central France, on Monday night
People walk past burning garbage bins near the Opera Garnier in Paris on Monday night
A protester, holding a red flag, walks past a bus shelter displaying a poster for a pension group which reads as “our values commit us”, during a demonstration in Dijon on Monday
Rubbish burns in the streets on Lyon on Monday night after the government pushed a pensions reform through parliament without a vote
A firefighter starts to extinguish a fire, during a demonstration in Dijon on Monday night
A protester takes a photograph of a fire during a demonstration in Dijon on Monday night
Frederique Meunier, of the Republicans party, said: ‘It’s as if they want to decapitate us.’
And Guillaume Gouffier Valente, an MP with Mr Macron’s Renaissance Party, saw a hangman’s sign scrawled outside his office in Vincennes, east of Paris.
‘He has since made a formal request to the Ministry of Interior for police protection for colleagues under threat,’ said a party spokesman.
Renaissance MP Brigitte Klinkert reported graffiti outside her office reading: ‘You vote against us, we will remember.’
Other politicians were clear in their condemnation of the proposed reforms and the way they were being pushed through.
Centrist MP Charles de Courson, who with his group introduced the motion supported by the left, deplored the government’s decision to use a special constitutional power to skirt a vote on the pension bill last week.
‘How can we accept such contempt for parliament? How can we accept such conditions to examine a text which will have lasting effects on the lives of millions of our fellow citizens?’ he said.
Hard-left MP Mathilde Panot told the government that ‘the people are looking at you like we look at someone who betrayed, with a mix of anger and disgust’.
She said: ‘Only nine votes are missing to bring both the government down and its reform down.
‘The government is already dead in the eyes of the French, it doesn’t have any legitimacy any more.’
Laure Lavalette, of the far-right National Rally party, said ‘no matter what the outcome is, you have failed to convince the French’.
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen said her group would file a request for the Constitutional Council to examine the bill on Tuesday and possibly censure it.
There was a fourth night of violence across France on Sunday following Mr Macron’s decision to bypass parliament last Thursday.
French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne (pictured) tried to rally a parliamentary majority for the legislation today
A police officer clashes with protesters at a demonstration in Lille, France, today as lawmakers attended votes on pension reforms and no-confidence in Emmanuel Macron’s government
Pedestrians walk past a fire made of household waste during demonstrations in Bordeaux, south west France on Saturday
A French police officer in riot looks on at fire during a demonstration in Bordeaux, south west France, on Saturday, against the plans
A protester holds a placard with the face of Macron reading ‘they have to come for me’ at a protest in Paris on Saturday
Protesters carry a puppet figure of Emmanuel Macron at a demonstration in Nice, south France, on Suday
A French police officer attempts to extinguish flames at the entrance of a town hall in Lyon following a protest on Friday night
Gangs roamed through the streets of major cities including Paris, burning effigies of the President and senior ministers before police responded with teargas and baton charges.
Strikes by rubbish collectors in reaction to the bill, which have now reached 15 days in a row, have seen waste pile high in the capital.
The three main incinerators serving the French capital have been mostly blocked, as has a rubbish sorting centre northwest of Paris.
‘The goal is to support the workers on strike in Paris, to put pressure on this government that wants to pass this unjust, brutal and useless and ineffective law,’ said Kamel Brahmi, of the CGT union, speaking to workers at the Romainville sorting plant.
Some refineries that supply petrol stations are at least partially blocked, and transport minister Clement Beaune said on France-Info radio that he would take action if necessary to ensure that fuel still gets out.
Unions, demanding that the government simply withdraw the retirement bill, have called for new nationwide protests on Thursday.
