“How can anyone govern a nation that has two hundred and forty-six different kinds of cheese?” – Charles de Gaulle (attributed)
Ah, France! [Insert lazy paragraph describing France in in terms of classic cliches including food, wine, cheese, sex, cigarettes and surrender.]
Yes, you’ll do nicely, Cliched French Guy Clip Art
In addition to those classic French attributes, another time-honored French tradition is “widespread rioting,” which they’ve been celebrating over the last few weeks. What they’re protesting is French President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to force through an unpopular bill to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64.
French President Emmanuel Macron ordered his prime minister to wield a special constitutional power Thursday that skirts parliament to force through a highly unpopular bill raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 without a vote.
His calculated risk set off a clamor among lawmakers, who began singing the national anthem even before Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne arrived in the lower chamber. She spoke forcefully over their shouts, acknowledging that Macron’s unilateral move will trigger quick motions of no-confidence in his government.
The fury of opposition lawmakers echoed the anger of citizens and workers’ unions. Thousands gathered at the Place de la Concorde facing the National Assembly, lighting a bonfire. As night fell, police charged the demonstrators in waves to clear the elegant Place. Small groups of those chased away moved through nearby streets in the chic neighborhood setting street fires. At least 120 were detained, police said.
Similar scenes repeated themselves in numerous other cities, from Rennes and Nantes in the east to Lyon and the southern port city of Marseille, where shop windows and bank fronts were smashed, according to French media. Radical leftist groups were blamed for at least some of the destruction.
The unions that have organized strikes and marches since January, leaving Paris reeking in piles of garbage, announced new rallies and protest marches in the days ahead. “This retirement reform is brutal, unjust, unjustified for the world of workers,” they declared.
Macron has made the proposed pension changes the key priority of his second term, arguing that reform is needed to keep the pension system from diving into deficit as France, like many richer nations, faces lower birth rates and longer life expectancy.
Macron decided to invoke the special power during a Cabinet meeting at the Elysee presidential palace, just a few minutes before the scheduled vote in France’s lower house of parliament, because he had no guarantee of a majority.
Some background on the maneuver.
French President Emmanuel Macron chose on Thursday to shun parliament and impose his unpopular pension reforms via a special constitutional power, the so-called “Article 49.3.”
The procedure has been regularly used in the past by different governments. But this time it’s drawing a lot of attention and prompting much criticism because of the massive public opposition to the increase in retirement ages.
Here’s a look at how and why the special power is used.
WHAT’S ARTICLE 49.3?
Article 49, paragraph 3 of the French Constitution provides that the government can pass a bill without a vote at the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, after a deliberation at a Cabinet meeting.
In response, lawmakers can file a no-confidence motion within 24 hours. If the motion gets approval from more than half the seats, the text is rejected and the government must resign.
If not, the bill is considered adopted and passes into law. Since the Constitution was established in 1958, only one no-confidence motion was successful, in 1962.
Charles de Gaulle (him again) rammed through the Constitution of the Fifth Republic because he wanted a stable central government and, compared to some other European states (I’m looking at you, Italy), it’s largely achieved those goals.
The thing is, Macron is probably right in that the French welfare state needs an older retirement age for the entire system to stay solvent (at least for a while longer). But the way his proposal was passed also emblematic of the deficit of democracy in the EU generally and France specifically. That old saw about democracies only lasting until people figuring out they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury is largely right, and in this, as in so many, many things, Eurocratic elites have decided the peasants simply can’t be allowed to derail the plans of their illustrious betters.
As of this writing, Macron just survived a no confidence vote over the issue. So France may well have bought itself a little more time before inevitable national bankruptcy. But every maneuver like increases French anger over the obvious democracy gap, and, as the Grand Tour lads have noted, the French can be exceptionally bloody minded over expressing their disapproval of laws they hate.
Tags: Charles de Gaulle, Economics, Elisabeth Borne, Emmanuel Macron, Foreign Policy, France, Grand Tour, video, Welfare State
This is one reason you want the government out of the business of healthcare or pensions; it’s all too easily politicized.
If there were a bunch of little pension plans out there that people had to pay into, that were run by the people getting the pensions themselves, making the choices on their own? None of this sh*t would be happening.
But, because they put government in charge of it all, welllllll… Now you reap the whirlwind. About all government ought to be doing is overseeing it all to make sure it won’t be screwed up by fraud.
If the French invest in Mozambique tuna bonds it will keep their pension system solvent for a few more years.
Socialism is a roach motel: Societies go in, but they don’t come out.
What causes this effect is pretty simple: The conditions obtaining under socialism discourage family formation and reproduction. There’s no point to getting married and having kids or buying a house when you’re still living with Mom and Dad in your thirties because you can’t find a job because the cost of hiring you is so enormous and there are all these old people cluttering up the employment market.
So, the entire structure, which rests on having a steadily growing population base, inevitably collapses under impact of the demographic trends socialism encourages. It’s a self-correcting issue, on a long enough time scale.
Europe is demographically doomed. As is everyone else, eventually. Endless growth ain’t a good thing, and neither is endless stagnation.
Interesting that the Leftist French rioters seem to have confined their arson to street bon fires and not actual structures, unlike BLM and Antifa in the US.
That’s because it’s theater. With rules.
American riots are run by and for ferals, with an utter lack of rules. You riot in order to provide cover for looting.
In France, it’s street theater.
We can vote ourselves into Socialism. We will have to shoot our way out of it.
[…] VAINLY THE OLD ENNUI: France’s Existential Crisis. “That old saw about democracies only lasting until people figuring out they can vote […]
[…] uses 10-minute blackouts to constantly interrupt viewing of U.S.-Cuba baseball game BattleSwarm: France’s Existential Crisis, also, Faster, Traxxas! Kill! Kill! Behind The Black: A verde valley on Mars, South Korean private […]