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French lawmakers have prepared two no-confidence motions against President Emmanuel Macron Monday after he pushed through legislation to increase the retirement age without a legislative vote against massive protests around the country.
The challenges, one brought by a coalition of small parties and another by the far-right National Rally, are not expected to garner the 287 votes needed to succeed and Macron would remain president no matter the result.
If one of the motions were to succeed, however, the pension reform would be shot down, French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne would be forced to resign and Macron would have to choose whether to replace her or dissolve parliament.
Macron last week implemented a little-used measure in the French Constitution to make the unpopular proposal that raised the retirement age from 62 to 64 into law without a vote of the National Assembly.
The measure also triggered a provision that opened the door for the opposition parties to call for a no-confidence vote.
Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire argued on Saturday that the reform, while difficult, was needed to keep the country’s pension solvent and that lawmakers needed to “face their responsibilities,” and expressed confidence that the challenges will fail.
“There will be no majority to bring the government down, but it will be a moment of truth,” Le Maire said in an interview with Le Parisian. “Is it a good idea to overthrow the government and cause political disorder over the pensions reforms? The answer is clearly no.”
Macron and his Renaissance Party said that according to figures from France’s Pensions Advisory Council, the projected pension deficit over the next 10 years would have been $10.73 billion annually through 2032 without the change.
