Quick Hit: Macron survives two no-confidence votes; French pension reforms will be adopted

UPDATE: Monday, Mar 20, 2023 · 6:41:57 PM +00:00 · Chitown Kev

France 24 reports that a second no-confidence vote sponsored by a far-right coalition has failed. The pension reforms have been adopted.

French President Emmanuel Macron has survived a no-confidence vote in the French National Assembly that was required in accordance with Article 49.3 of the French Constitution.

Le Monde in English

The no-confidence motion filed by a small centrist group and supported by a leftist coalition received 278 votes on Monday, March 20, falling nine votes short of the 287 needed to pass.

Another motion at the initiative of the far-right that is expected to get less support from other groups’ lawmakers. If the second vote also fails on Monday, the pension bill will be considered adopted.

A decision to force the pension legislation through the Assemblée Nationale without a vote last Thursday sparked protests over the weekend, calls for more strikes and outrage about a maneuver widely seen as undemocratic.

Bringing the government down was "the only way of stopping the social and political crisis in this country," Charles de Courson, the author of one of the two no-confidence votes and France's longest-serving MP, told France Inter radio on Monday.

So it appears that Macron’s proposed pension reform bill will become French law.

And the French government is stable...for now.