French govt defiant on pensions ahead of crucial votes

PARIS: France´s government on Sunday held its ground over a bitterly contested pension reform rammed through parliament without a vote, a day before it faces crucial no-confidence motions.

“There will be no majority to bring the government down, but it will be a moment of truth,” Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said of the two efforts to unseat the cabinet planned for Monday afternoon.

“I understand our countrymen´s fears and anxieties, but we will definitely not improve things by denying economic reality,” he told daily Le Parisien. Monday´s two no-confidence motions have been filed by a small group of centrist MPs and the far-right National Rally.

Although President Emmanuel Macron´s camp has no absolute majority in the lower house National Assembly, it is the largest group and all of the opposition would need to unite for one of the votes to pass.

Most MPs from the conservative Republicans party are not expected to back a no-confidence motion. Republicans chief Eric Ciotti wrote on Twitter on Sunday that his constituency office had been pelted with rocks overnight.

“The killers who did this want to put pressure on my vote on Monday,” Ciotti wrote on Twitter, posting pictures showing smashed windows and threatening graffiti. He has previously said that he would not “add chaos to chaos” by kicking the government out.

The government´s Thursday decision to resort to Article 49.3 of the constitution -- which allows ramming a bill through parliament without a vote -- has prompted anger in the streets after weeks of mostly peaceful protests and strikes against the plans.

Labour Minister Olivier Dussopt told the JDD weekly that “it´s not an admission of failure, but it´s heart-breaking” to have used the nuclear option to pass the reform. Police on Saturday closed Paris´ Place de la Concorde opposite parliament for demonstrations following two successive nights of clashes.

Some 122 people were arrested as some set rubbish bins on fire, destroyed bus stops and erected improvised barricades around a 4,000-strong demonstration in the capital. They made up the majority of Saturday´s 169 arrests nationwide.