By Athena Papakosta

Emmanuel Macron has decided to bypass the French parliament and pass his pension reform by presidential decree. The scenes that followed inside and outside the French National Assembly were chaotic.

The French president appealed to Article 49 paragraph 3 of the Constitution. The country’s prime minister, Elisabeth Borne, tried to announce the government’s decision inside the French National Assembly with left-wing MPs standing up to sing the national anthem while holding up anti-reform placards reading “No to 64” and “Democracy”.

Anger is running high in French politics with impeachment proceedings already underway.

The bill to reform the pension system in France provides for an increase in the retirement age from 62 to 64 years. It also provides for public sector workers to lose some of their benefits while also increasing the years of work required to issue a full pension. Pension changes were part of Macron’s agenda in his bid for re-election to a second term as president.

France was already paralyzed by the mass protest rallies and general strikes. The announcement of the activation of the controversial – as characterized by the foreign media – special constitutional procedure led on Thursday night to citizens to spontaneously take to the streets of the French capital and violent incidents to break out in Paris between demonstrators and the police.

The atmosphere quickly became suffocating with heavy police forces making extensive use of tear gas and protesters responding by throwing stones and lighting fires. The situation further derailed with police firing water cannons to disperse the crowd.

It was a last-minute decision taken during an emergency cabinet meeting – shortly before the scheduled start of the disputed vote in the National Assembly.

Evidently, Emmanuel Macron was well aware that his bill would not garner the necessary support. Elizabeth Bourne pulled the snake out of the hole. The country’s prime minister justified the decision by emphasizing that “we cannot gamble with the future of pensions and reform is necessary.”

The opposition parties file a motion of censure. They only have 24 hours left and the clock is already counting down from yesterday. Whether they manage to… “overthrow” the Macron government, that will depend on how united they are until the end. The motion of no confidence needs 289 votes and the political storm in France demonstrates the difficult position Macron is in since he does not have an absolute majority in the French National Assembly. Of course, since last June when the French president won… losing, he has managed to pass bills with the help of the Republicans. Their head, Eric Chiotti, has already made it clear that the Republicans will not support the impeachment proposal, but it is not certain that there will not be leaks.

The first gallop is a fact on behalf of the French newspaper Le Figaro by the company Odoxa-Backbone Consulting according to which 74% of French people disagree with Macron’s choice to bypass the French National Assembly and reform the pension by decree while six in ten French to be in favor of the continuation of strike actions.

The political thermometer in France is rising further and the French president is faced with political rivals, unions and angry citizens as he stubbornly sticks to his pension reform taking the biggest risk of his career that could cost him his political future.