France is on the brink of another revolution! The proles are swarming to the barricades and it’s only a matter of time before President Macron is dragged from the Élysée palace.
That is the gist of some of the more excitable reporting about what happened yesterday in France. It was certainly a dramatic day after the government forced through its pension reform bill that will increase the age of retirement from 62 to 64. It did so on the orders of Macron, deploying a controversial clause in the constitution – article 49.3 – which legalises a bill without the need for a parliamentary vote.
Where were the opposition MPs in 2020, raging against a breakdown in democracy?
It’s becoming a habit of Macron’s. Since he lost his absolute majority in the National Assembly last summer, his government has on eleven occasions passed legalisation with the deployment of article 49.3. Previously, in the 65-year history of the 5th Republic, it had been used 89 times.
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