Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

Has Emmanuel Macron become France’s ‘Caligula’? 

Emmanuel Macron (Credit: Getty images)

The government of Emmanuel Macron won a vote of no confidence in the National Assembly on Monday by a mere nine votes. The cross-party no-confidence motion, tabled by a Centrist coalition fell just short of the 287 votes it needed to bring down the government. 

To succeed the no-confidence motion required the support of the centre-right Republican party, augmenting the votes of the left-wing NUPE coalition and Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party, both of whom are opposed to the government’s reform bill that was passed last Thursday without a parliamentary vote. Instead, on Macron’s orders, Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne used a controversial clause in the Constitution, Article 49.3, to pass the bill. 

Opposition to the pension reform is supported by political leaders from the left and right and by the eight main trade unions

The Republican party are widely supportive of Macron’s reform bill, which raises the age of retirement from 62 to 64, and issued instructions for its 61 MPS to vote against the motion.

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