French government narrowly survives no-confidence vote but faces more challenges
President Emmanuel Macron's government narrowly survived a no-confidence motion in the National Assembly on Monday, after bypassing the lower house to push through a deeply unpopular change to the pension system.
The outcome will be a relief to Macron: a successful no-confidence vote would have sunk his government and killed the legislation, which is set to raise the retirement age by two years to 64.
But the relief could be short-lived.
For one thing, the vote was closer than expected. Some 278 MPs voted in favour of the tripartisan, no-confidence motion, just nine short of the 287 needed for it to succeed.
In addition, unions and protesters have vowed to carry on with strikes and protests against the pension reform.
Observers say Macron's failure to find enough support in parliament to put his pension proposals to a vote has already undermined his reformist agenda and weakened his leadership.
As soon as the narrow failure of the vote was announced, lawmakers from the hard left La France Insoumise (LFI, France Unbowed) shouted "Resign!" at Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne and brandished placards that read: "We'll meet in the streets."
"We only needed nine more votes for this motion of no confidence to break this government and its reform – nine votes, as the government is already dead in the eyes of the French people," LFI parliamentary group chief Mathilde Panot told reporters.
Violent unrest has erupted across the country in recent days and trade unions have promised to intensify their strike action, leaving Macron to face the most dangerous challenge to his authority since the "Yellow Vest" uprising over four years ago.
Opposition parties will also challenge the bill in the Constitutional Council, which could decide to strike down some or all of it - if it considers it breaches the constitution.
A second motion of no confidence, tabled by the far-right National Rally (RN), also failed, after it gathered only 94 votes. Other opposition parties said they would not vote for it.
"Yes, this motion of no confidence failed, but it only needed nine little votes... This means that although numbers-wise, they (government) could rejoice, politically, they cannot," far-right lawmaker Marine Le Pen said.
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen said Borne should go. She said Macron should call a referendum on the reform but was unlikely to do so.
A ninth nationwide day of strikes and protests is scheduled on Thursday.
