Calay News
France’s National Assembly (NA) could approve President Emmanuel Macron’s national pension reform bill this Thursday, despite the protests and strikes that have taken place during the last few weeks. The unions had hoped for a massive popular mobilization to achieve the complete withdrawal of the reform bill, but the number of strikers and protesters has decreased compared to previous days. In the capital, the CGT announced 400,000 demonstrators, while the Interior Ministry counted only 37,000, and in France as a whole, less than one million demonstrators were counted, a very low figure in a country of 68 million inhabitants.
On the eve of the vote, a joint commission of senators and deputies approved the reform bill, which will be submitted to the NA for approval. While this is a relative triumph for Macron, the reform has been scaled back from its early ambitions in order to be approved. The Prime Minister, Élizabeth Borne, hopes that the parties and allies of the government will count on the parliamentary support of the Republicans (traditional right) for the reform to pass.
In the absence of an absolute majority, the President could impose the reform with Article 49.3 of the Constitution, which allows a bill to be adopted by decree without a parliamentary vote. However, this would be a dangerous victory, as he would have to face possible motions of censure and institutional appeals. The unions threaten to continue to call for the withdrawal of the entire reform.
Meanwhile, the garbage collectors’ strike has been a spectacular success, with thousands of tons of garbage going uncollected in central neighborhoods and city landmarks. This has given France’s capital a dirty, twilight image, with thousands of rats scurrying among uncollected garbage bins. Whatever the outcome of the parliamentary battle, the trade unions have confirmed that the garbage will continue to offer ‘fast food’ to Parisian rats for an indefinite period of time.
