Pension reform 2023: the Macron-Borne couple weakened

They may have calculated and recalculated: there was no majority to adopt the pension reform, Thursday, March 16, in the National Assembly. And this equation could still apply to future texts. This is the main reason for the political crisis, in which Emmanuel Macron and Élisabeth Borne are now immersed and trapped, after their choice to use article 49.3 of the Constitution to have the text adopted without a vote.

On Friday March 17, the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister resumed the thread of their meetings: the first with members of the second promotion of the Marianne initiative which supports human rights defenders from all over the world , the second in a meeting of ministers on ecological planning. But as angry demonstrations have erupted in Paris and the provinces, they urgently need to put out the smoldering fire, not only in the country but also in their own majority.

Elisabeth Borne in a “role of fuse”

“The presidential minority collapsed before your eyes, with Ms. Borne who fully played her role as a fuse and who somehow burned during this session”, trumpeted the leader of La France insoumise Jean-Luc Mélenchon on the Place de la Concorde, where thousands of demonstrators had converged on Thursday. “The conflict over pensions reveals a weakened and more isolated Macron,” pointed out the American daily The New York Times, with a photo on the front page of the Insoumis deputies standing, placards in hand, in the Hemicycle.

After his re-election, the president promised a “new method”, while, in her general policy speech, Elisabeth Borne extolled the virtues of “compromise”. He designed the reform, she negotiated and defended it. It is together that they bear the responsibility for the failure of this governance. The head of state tried to clear himself, making it known that he was in favor of a vote but that, the head of government having asked to engage his responsibility, he had not prevented it. It is a “collective decision” and “not a question of person”, argued on the contrary the head of government, Thursday, on TF1.

An atmosphere of “regime crisis”

However, it is indeed his future at Matignon which is suspended, after the tabling of two motions of censure – one “transpartisan”, the other from the National Rally – which will be debated on Monday March 20. Élisabeth Borne summarized the issue on TF1: “49.3 allows the opposition to table a motion of censure, it will be the subject of a vote, and this vote, ultimately, will be: those who are for or those who are against reform. If the government falls, the country will sink further into crisis. And even if he does not fall, the question of his ability to act will remain crucial. “We are destined to continue to govern,” said government spokesman Olivier Véran, Friday March 17, on France Inter.

“The President of the Republic will be forced to reshuffle the government”, considers an elected Horizons, the party of former Prime Minister Édouard Philippe, partner of the majority. “There was a lack of humility, regrets this same elected official. I would be the government, I would lay low. We must see the mobilization and do everything to avoid stirring it up. ” At the MoDem, another partner, the deputy Erwan Balanant is worried about a situation “which is approaching the crisis of the regime”: “It was a mistake to make 49.3 on a text like that, given the state of our democracy. We had to go to the vote, even if it meant losing. I am in shock “.

A big disappointment

The disappointment is great even in the ranks of Renaissance. “Some thought we could win, and many thought above all that an honorable exit was possible in the event of a negative vote: the president could have said that he had respected democracy, then given back to his five-year term the impetus that ‘he did not take in 2022,’ asserts a deputy from the presidential party. So many warning messages to Emmanuel Macron to pick up the pieces of broken down institutions and a damaged link with the French.

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