Macron Bypassing Parliament to Pass Pension Reform Stirs Protest

(Bloomberg) --

French President Emmanuel Macron's decision to push through a controversial pension reform without a vote in the lower house of Parliament sparked protests among opposition lawmakers, who called for a no-confidence vote to oust the government.

The decision to use a constitutional maneuver to bypass the lower house could put an end to two weeks of debate that government lawmakers say has been marred by delaying tactics by the opposition. The move means that a provisional version of the bill could be passed before municipal elections March 15 and 22, which are expected to be challenging for Macron's three-year-old LREM party.

“They didn't want to listen to the unions, nor to the business federations, but they won't be able to turn a deaf ear to voters,” said Olivier Faure, the head of the opposition Socialist Party.

The decision was announced Saturday, the same day as the government said it will ban large gatherings to limit the coronavirus outbreak after confirmed cases in the country topped 100. The pension reform had prompted strikes and national protests by public sector transport workers, which had largely died down since the start of the year.

The decision to use a constitutional provision to end further debate means the draft reform will move directly to the Senate as opposition parties won't likely have enough support to vote out the government in the lower house.

It's a “missed opportunity to reform our pension system to ensure its sustainability, and make it fairer,” the opposition Republican party said in its call to vote the government out.

The government reform aims to encourage people to continue to work beyond the minimum retirement age of 62 as the growing ranks of retirees puts further strains on public finances. The government pays out about 320 billion euros ($352 billion) in pensions per year, about 14% of gross domestic product.

The plan to replace 42 different pension regimes with a single, points-based system, was part of Macron's pledge during his 2017 presidential campaign to overhaul taxes, labor laws and the welfare system.

France's supreme administrative jurisdiction has warned there are gaps in the financial forecasts of the pension reform and said that it can't guarantee the legal certainty of the bills.

“The pension reform would have deserved a real debate,” Geoffroy Roux de Bezieux, the head of Medef, France's biggest business federation, said in a tweet. “Too many questions remain unanswered, including the funding one.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Francois de Beaupuy in Paris at fdebeaupuy@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: James Herron at jherron9@bloomberg.net, Andrew Davis, Tony Halpin

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