By Athena Papakosta

Emmanuel Macron’s government has survived two impeachment motions brought against it by the opposition. This means that Macron’s pension reform raising the minimum pension age from 62 to 64 is now the law of the land.

In the first motion of censure, which had the best chance of “passing”, 278 MPs voted in favor, including 19 MPs from the center-right Republican Party, which has become a crutch of the Macron government.

As for the second motion of censure, which belonged to Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Alarm, it received 94 votes. That is, many votes less than the coveted number of 287 that would give the green light for the French president’s government to fall.

It is a Pyrrhic victory for Emmanuel Macron, who emerges from this “adventure” politically emboldened, with French journalists once again talking about a victory that came from a defeat for the 45-year-old French president.

What remains in the equation is the fact that the Macron government initially turned to triggering Article 49(3), under which insurance reform can be passed by presidential decree rather than through the normal parliamentary process. And that’s because Emmanuel Macron counted the… beans and saw that they didn’t come his way after his government failed to secure the required votes.

Moreover, although his government has survived impeachment motions, it is more weakened than ever. According to analysts, the French president will be forced to proceed with either a bold reshuffle or at least sacrifice the person who pulled the chestnuts out of the fire, his prime minister, Elisabeth Borne, the country’s second female prime minister in 30 years.

At the same time, nothing is over for the opposition parties who seem determined to take it to the extreme.

On the table falls the appeal within the next 15 days to the Constitutional Court to examine the constitutionality of the – now – pension reform law.

At the same time, there are voices in favor of holding a referendum. It is a process which is quite complicated and time-consuming as it requires the consent of 185 MPs and the signatures of 1/10 of the voters, i.e. almost 5 million citizens. Everything shows that such a thing is practically impossible since this process must be completed before the publication of the reform.

The appointment is confidently given on the streets of the French capital and other major cities as well, with the opposition calling on unions and citizens to stick to their strike action and protest rallies. After all, the next appointment is scheduled for Thursday and the ninth nationwide strike in a row that is expected to paralyze the country again, while last night the streets of Paris were also on fire from protests with at least 100 arrested.

The French president himself is collapsing in the polls as his popularity has fallen by 13 percentage points since last spring, when he was re-elected. A fact which confirms that Emmanuel Macron is definitely experiencing the most difficult days of his presidency. It is no coincidence that in the first 24 hours and while popular anger was turning the country into a boiling cauldron inside and outside the French National Assembly, he himself was absent and silent to wish the controversial reform “to complete its democratic course” with respect to all”.