Lawmakers are filing two motions to protest President Macron’s decision to bypass Parliament to raise the retirement age.
The French government narrowly escaped two no-confidence votes in Parliament after President Emmanuel Macron pushed through a pension reform that met with fierce opposition from workers and some politicians.
Monday’s motions were tabled by lawmakers furious at Macron’s decision last week to bypass Parliament and raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 by using special constitutional powers.
A first multi-party motion was defeated by nine votes, while the 577-seat National Assembly overwhelmingly rejected a second motion by the far right. If both votes are missing, the pension change is considered accepted. It will now go to the Constitutional Court for review and could become law in the coming days.
The close result in the first vote prompted some left-wing lawmakers to call for the immediate resignation of Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne.
“Only nine votes are missing … to bring down both the government and its reform,” said radical left MP Mathilde Panot. “The government is already dead in the eyes of the French. It no longer has any legitimacy.”
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen said her faction will ask the Constitutional Council to consider and possibly censure the bill on Tuesday.
Macron says the pension reform is necessary to prevent the system from sliding into deficit as France’s population ages.
But critics of the reform disagree, saying it places an unfair burden on low-income earners, women and those in physically demanding jobs. Opinion polls have consistently shown that two-thirds of French people are against the changes.
There is resistance to the law on the streets. French workers have been protesting for weeks and have promised to increase pressure on the government, eventually urging it to repeal the law.
“The political battle is not over yet,” said Al Jazeera’s Natacha Butler.
“There’s a lot of frustration among some people who feel like the government isn’t getting in touch with the concerns, and there’s a strong feeling in the air … a sense of social unrest and unease with the government,” Butler said .
She noted that the mood resembled the atmosphere of a wave of protests that began in late 2018. Back then, the so-called Yellow Vests, protesters known for their safety vests, demonstrated against a plan to increase fuel taxes that was later withdrawn, as well as other measures Macron wanted, the rising cost of living and economic inequalities.
In Paris, the rubbish that piles up on the 15th day of a collectors’ strike stinks. The French capital’s three main incinerators have been mostly blocked, as has a waste sorting center northwest of Paris. Some refineries that supply petrol stations are also at least partially closed.
Hundreds of mostly young demonstrators gathered on Monday in Les Invalides, Napoleon’s final resting place, to demonstrate against the pension reform. Some rubbish bins were set on fire, but otherwise the protest was quiet. Participants listened to sessions in the National Assembly over a channel broadcast over loudspeakers from a union van.
“The aim is to support the striking workers in Paris … to put pressure on this government that wants to pass this unjust, brutal and useless and ineffective law,” Kamel Brahmi of the left-wing CGT union told workers using a megaphone at the Romainville sorting plant.
Unions are demanding the government roll back pension changes and have called for new nationwide protests on Thursday.
Political expert Francoise Gere from the French Institute for Strategic Analysis said France was facing a “dangerous political and social crisis”.
“It is the beginning of a new form of political crisis, a combination of more frequent street demonstrations and strikes that are increasingly damaging the country’s economy, combined with a government that cannot rely on a strong political majority,” Gere told Al Jazeera, warns that a deep and serious crisis is unfolding.
“The important problem here is that this government is no longer credible,” Gere said. “There is a legitimacy crisis and Macron will have to face that situation.”