Disclaimer: This article was written in early April 2023 and may be outdated by the time of publication (May 2023).
On March 16, 2023, President Emmanuel Macron of France used Article 49.3 of the French constitution to bypass France’s hectic National Assembly and force through a controversial pension reform bill. This action, announced by prime minister Elisabeth Borne, triggered a massive wave of strikes and protests in France.
The bill in question was a new law that would raise the age of retirement, at which citizens gain a pension, to sixty-four. Before the law’s passage, it was sixty-two. In the United States, the age is sixty-five—with many politicians pushing to increase it. The law is deeply unpopular in France, where social benefits and pensions are considered crucial to French society and culture. Two-thirds of the French people opposed the passage of the law. However, Macron and his government believe the law is necessary to ensure France’s government can keep a balanced budget, and to prevent the pension system from becoming underfunded. In addition, Macron wants to fund other energy, technology, and military projects, using the money saved from the increase in the pension age.
Article 49.3 was a vital part of the powerful presidency former President Charles De Gaulle envisioned in France’s fifth republic. It was established in the context of an unstable parliament. Macron has used it eleven times in this session of parliament, which began in the fall. It allows the executive branch of the government to force France’s more liberal and unstable National Assembly to pass a necessary bill. France’s generally more conservative and stable Senate must still approve the bill for it to become law. To prevent abuse, Article 49.3 has a significant drawback: To bypass the Assembly, the executive branch must put its existence on the line. If a no-confidence motion is introduced and passes the National Assembly, the prime minister and the cabinet are fired, and the President must appoint a new government. The bill is also rejected. France came nine votes away from passing a no-confidence vote as the center-right Republicans were divided on the issue and didn’t fully commit to passing the no-confidence motion.
The subversion of the National Assembly led to massive protests against President Macron and his government. Many left-wing political parties and politicians (nearly all of whom voted no-confidence in his government) endorsed the protests, along with many far-right parties campaigning on cost-of-living issues, and France’s largest labor unions led strikes. A garbage worker strike in Paris resulted in smelly streets and worries about a rat infestation. In addition, some French parties have pointed out that the entire constitution of the fifth republic, which centers power in the executive branch, is undemocratic and against French values. There have been growing calls by some parties, particularly the left-wing France Unbowed, for a new sixth republic that would grant more power to the National Assembly and Parliament as a whole, taking it away from the executive government. They currently hold 74 out of the 577 seats in the National Assembly.
The protests come as part of a larger cost-of-living crisis worldwide, particularly in Europe, which has been further exacerbated by the war in Ukraine. Fringe far-right and far-left European parties have been gaining steam across the continent during the crisis, particularly in France, Germany, and Spain, and have come into power in Poland, Hungary, and Italy. The protests are the most significant threat to Macron’s administration since the Yellow Vest Movement in 2018 during his first term in office. While a meeting between the government and labor unions failed, and the government has refused to withdraw the bill, opposition to the law is expected to decrease slowly, and the strikes will end.
