![]() ![]() Some are making plans to disrupt the nationwide baccalauréat examinations, the French prerequisite to college studies, that start next week. What the unions are planning is to demonstrate again and engage in further strikes week after week, or even month after month. This might have been the work of small groups of extremists, however, rather than of the rank and file of union militants. Even more significantly, both President Macron and Mme. Garbage piles were set afire, shop windows were smashed, and attempts were made to storm and vandalize such public buildings as local government centers. Sporadic violence erupted in Paris and elsewhere, as it is often the case in France in the context of large demonstrations. Similar situations arose in many other cities. ![]() ![]() Traffic had to be suspended, not just there but all over central Paris. on Thursday at the seat of the National Assembly, Palais-Bourbon, thousands of angry protestors converged at Place de la Concorde, the monumental 18th century square across the Seine (it is where Louis XVI was guillotined in 1793). “We are going to double down on our rejection of their policies.”Īs Madame Borne’s recourse to 49.3 was announced around 3 p.m. “The government is double downing on its contempt of public opinion,” a spokesman for the Force Ouvrière, a trade union, said Friday morning. All the more so when it is being used in a context of extreme polarization. While “49.3”- as it is routinely referred to - traces back to an old and accepted parliamentary practice, it has often been decried as one of the “authoritarian” elements in the 1958 presidential constitution drafted by General de Gaulle and his advisors. Should the prime minister lose it, the president of the Republic must appoint a new one. However, such a procedure allows in turn the opposition to call for a vote of no confidence. It’s a striking image of the current French crisis.Īrticle 49.3 allows the prime minister, in case he has no majority at the Assembly on a specific proposal related to finance or welfare issues, or a limited number of other issues, to pass it without a vote. Anti-government rioters setting fire to the garbage that has been piling up for days due to an anti-government strike by garbage collectors: this is how Paris looked Thursday, right after the prime minister, Elizabeth Borne, resorted to article 49.3 of the constitution to pass her Retirement Reform Bill at the National Assembly. ![]()
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