After the controversial pension reform was passed, 287 people were arrested during protests in France last night, 234 of them in Paris alone. The government had previously survived two no-confidence motions, meaning that the reform, which would raise the retirement age from 62 to 64, is deemed to have passed.
In Paris, hundreds of people gathered near the National Assembly in the evening, and people also took to the streets in Strasbourg, Dijon, Lyon, Lille and other cities, as journalists from the AFP news agency reported. In many places, garbage cans were thrown over and set on fire, barricades were erected and stones were thrown. According to police circles, 240 firefighting operations were counted in Paris.
Government survives double no-confidence vote
According to the official results of the vote, the vote on the first cross-party motion was only nine votes short of an absolute majority, which would have resulted in the fall of the government. A second motion of no confidence brought by the right-wing populist Rassemblement National also failed.
The government was able to pass the reform in this way because it had enforced Article 49.3 of the Constitution. This provides that a law can be passed without a vote in Parliament if the government subsequently survives motions of no confidence.
