Africa-Press – Mauritius. For several weeks now, the government of President Emmanuel Macron has been mired in a political crisis over pension reform. This has also given rise to scenes of incredible violence in the streets of Paris.
Unions and opposition parties, both right and left, have organized to block this highly controversial piece of legislation. This did not prevent the government from passing it through a legal device called 49.3.
Pension reform in France. . . governing against the people thus risks becoming an increasingly widespread norm. P – Sudinfo 49.3, of which Emmanuel Macron’s government makes extensive use, is a law that allows the government to pass its laws to the National Assembly after deliberation by the Council of Ministers.
This law makes it possible to circumvent the need for a vote in the Assembly in the case of a finance bill or the financing of social security only; and the only recourse available to the parliamentary opposition is to push a motion of no confidence within 24 hours of the adoption of a law at 49.3.
Thus, not having a sufficient majority in the National Assembly, Prime Minister Elizabeth Borne had no choice but to pass this reform to 49.3, while maneuvering politically so that the motion of censure only had filed Marine Le Pen does not find the majority required to block the text of the law.
There then remained only the recourse to the Constitutional Council which had to rule on the constitutionality of this bill, thus being able to block it.
However, the Constitutional Council validated the text of the law by censoring only a few articles. Emmanuel Macron thus holds his victory over a reform that he was determined to carry out.
Indeed, the President of the Republic, who will not stand for re-election in the next presidential elections due to term limits, will not have yielded to popular pressure and street demonstrations, even if it means risking tarnishing the image of France in terms of democratic processes.
Emmanuel Macron knows very well that this reform is vital for the good health of public finances in France, and also to counter the harmful effects of the aging of the French population, knowing at the same time that none of his predecessors had had the courage policy to see it through to completion.
He also knows that the historical social gains in France will have to be questioned one by one, in a globalization where the ability of Western countries to maintain their position will necessarily be jeopardized without major social and economic reforms, even whether these reforms will have to be made against the popular will.
Governing against the people thus risks becoming an increasingly widespread norm, even in large democracies. Machiavelli already said it: we don’t give the people what they want but what they need.
and that, even if they don’t know they need it.
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