French parliament chief to block bid to axe pension overhaul

PARIS — France's opposition parties on Wednesday vowed to submit a no-confidence motion against the government after the parliament speaker said she would block an attempt to repeal an unpopular pension overhaul that raised the retirement age.

The law hiking the retirement age to 64 from 62 was enacted following months of mass protests via a controversial constitutional mechanism that allowed the government to avoid a vote in the lower-house national assembly.

Speaker Yael Braun-Pivet, who is from President Emmanuel Macron's centrist party but is officially neutral, confirmed she would reject on constitutional grounds the bid to introduce new legislation, infuriating its backers.

Speaking to BFM television, she said an amendment proposed by the small LIOT faction in parliament and backed by left-wing parties would be declared "inadmissible".

She was alluding to Article 40 of the constitution, which bans legislative proposals from MPs that would add a burden to public finances.

Reversing the increase in the retirement age, the key measure of Macron's hard-fought pension reform, would add billions to government spending, she said.

“You don’t bend the constitution to please the opposition,” government spokesman Olivier Veran said.

LIOT called the speaker’s decision “an unprecedented attack on the rights of parliament”.

Mathilde Panot, a senior figure from the hard-left France Unbowed party, said that her group would submit a no-confidence motion and that discussions with partners were ongoing over the tactics to adopt.

Senior Socialist party lawmaker Boris Vallaud said different groups were debating the issue, while LIOT leader Bertrand Pancher said his MPs would decide on their response later Wednesday.

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen tweeted that Braun-Pivet was “trampling on the constitution” in a “denial of democracy”, but her National Rally Party had not come out in favour of a no-confidence motion.

Opponents of the pension reform had seen LIOT’s parliamentary manoeuvre as their last hope of thwarting the changes, having previously tried and failed with an appeal to France’s constitutional court.

Observers said Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne’s minority government risked losing a vote on the LIOT legislation, however, with left-wing parties, the far right and some centre-right MPs prepared to vote against the executive.

Panot said Braun-Pivet’s decision was an admission of “fear” and accused her of failing to uphold the neutrality of her post.

The original legislation was rammed through the National Assembly in March without a direct vote using a constitutional power that can be invoked by the prime minister.

The move led to accusations that Macron was riding roughshod over French democracy and public opinion, with around two-thirds of voters opposed to the changes, according to polls.

A survey by the Elabe group for BFM television published on Wednesday suggested that 71 per cent of French people wanted the LIOT amendment to be discussed and voted on, with 64 per cent hoping for its adoption.

The rest of the text — shorn of its key article — can still be debated in parliament on Thursday.

A nationwide protest against the reform on Tuesday was the 14th but smallest to date, as the movement appears to run out of steam.