Emmanuel Macron’s Government Is Imposing Its Unpopular Agenda by Decree
Emmanuel Macron’s government lost its majority this June, and now relies on strong-arm tactics to push through its agenda. This week’s budget debate showed the government’s weakness — and the possibility of blocking its assault on France’s social model.
French prime minister Élisabeth Borne (left) and fellow ministers attend a debate after two votes of no confidence were registered by the Left and the far right over the government’s usage of the constitution’s Article 49.3 to force its 2023 budget through parliament without a vote, at the French National Assembly in Paris, on October 23, 2022. (Julien De Rosa / AFP via Getty Images)
This Monday, a vote of no confidence failed to topple the French government under Élisabeth Borne. President Emmanuel Macron’s prime minister since this spring, Borne was forced to use a special article of the French constitution to force the passage of the French state’s budget for 2023. A kill switch on parliamentary debate designed to avert paralysis, the so-called “Article 49.3” allows the government to enact legislation unless most MPs vote to censure the government. A successful no-confidence vote would have paved the way for a dissolution of parliament and a new round of legislative elections.
Proposed by deputies of France’s left-wing Nouvelle Union Populaire Écologique et Social (NUPES) alliance, the vote of no confidence won 239 votes in the final tally. Coming within fifty votes of censuring the government, the Left’s motion received the last-minute support of the 89 MPs of Marine Le Pen’s National Rally caucus.
There was no prior negotiation between the opposing left-wing and far-right forces. Nonetheless, the circumstantial convergence has nourished accusations of connivence between the NUPES and Le Pen, with Macronist surrogates attempting to position themselves as the vital guardians of a republic under attack from the extremes.
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