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Macron’s government survived two votes of no confidence filed by opposition parties in parliament, but marches and walkouts organised by the unions gave way to more spontaneous demonstrations and clashes with police in cities like Paris and Bordeaux, as protesters set fire to piles of uncollected garbage.
The pushback prompted the postponement of a state visit from King Charles III in March and became a political crisis for Macron. However, the numbers of protesters and striking worker numbers have fallen lately, fuelling the government’s hopes that they could wait out the anger.
Riot police guard the Constitutional Council building during a demonstration against pension reform in central Paris on Thursday.Credit: Bloomberg
The council said it had rejected six aspects of the law that did not belong in a budget bill, including a so-called “senior” index to measure companies’ progress on keeping older people in the workforce.
It also rejected arguments by the opposition that the government had abused parliamentary procedure by adding the reform to a social security budget bill to shorten debate, and by overriding politicians to pass it without a vote using the so-called 49.3 clause in the constitution.
It also rejected calls for a referendum on the issue from the left-wing opposition.
French President Emmanuel Macron in March. Credit: AP
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“Although the measures related to the pensions reform ... could have been introduced as an ordinary law, the government’s choice to embed them as an addendum to the [social security law] is not in itself a breach of any constitutional obligation,” the constitutional council said in a statement.
Borne, whose future in the role has been thrown into doubt amid the controversy, attempted to draw a line under the fight, saying there were “no winners nor losers” in light of the ruling.
“The law has reached the end of its democratic process,” she said in a tweet.
She had met with labour unions in recent weeks, offering new talks over a separate set of proposals to improve working conditions and pay. Macron has also invited them to a meeting at the Elysee Palace on Tuesday.
The issue has bitterly divided society and united Macron’s opponents against him across the political divide.
Demonstrators gather outside Hotel de Ville against the decision by the French Constitutional Council to approve Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform.Credit: Getty Images
Far-left parliamentary leader Mathilde Panot vowed to continue fighting the reform, telling the National Assembly that the “blockage of the country will remain total after this decision”.