Michaela Wiegel

Political correspondent based in Paris.

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French President Emmanuel Macron has cancelled a last-minute vote on pension reform in the National Assembly. On Thursday, a quarter of an hour before the start of the voting debate, he called a cabinet meeting at the Elysée Palace. At the urgent session, it was decided to resort to Article 49 of the Constitution and to end the parliamentary debate without a vote. Marine Le Pen then criticised a "complete failure" of the government and demanded the resignation of the prime minister: "Elisabeth Borne cannot stay at her post". Mathilde Panot, leader of the Left Party's parliamentary group, said the draft law on pension reform had "no legitimacy whatsoever." The president of the CFDT union, Laurent Berger, said that the president had disregarded social democracy and had failed.

Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne was received by MPs at the opening of the session with whistles, roars and the singing of the Marseillaise. The President of Parliament had to suspend the sitting due to the confusion. The opposition can now table a motion of no confidence within 24 hours. A vote of confidence is expected on Monday.

The decision in favour of the constitutional article was preceded by turbulent hours. Four times within 24 hours, Macron convened crisis meetings at the Elysée Palace. The reason for the panic: a part of the conservative Republicans (LR) refused to approve the reform project, although Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne had largely responded to the demands of the former presidential party. The LR party chairman Eric Ciotti had called for support for the pension reform. But neither he nor group leader Olivier Marleix could guarantee that all 61 MEPs would follow him.

The raising of the retirement age from 62 to 64 years by 2030 meets with great resistance. The trade unions have announced that they will continue their protests in the event of the "constitutional club" of Article 49. In Paris, Nantes, Le Havre, Antibes and other cities, garbage is piling up because garbage collection has been on strike for days. There were spontaneous protests in front of the National Assembly. An unannounced protest rally on the square of the Concorde was prevented by law enforcement.

Prime Minister Borne has said she is prepared to be sacrificed as a "safeguard" for the president. It is unclear whether the government will survive the confidence vote. For the first time, all opposition parties could vote together for a no-confidence motion by Liberal MP Charles de Courson opposing the pension reform. So far, the Rassemblement National around the parliamentary group leader Marine Le Pen had always been marginalized. On Thursday morning, the Senate voted 193 to 114 for the pension reform.

On Wednesday evening, Macron had played through all options with his confidants, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, Labor Minister Olivier Dussopt, Budget Minister Gabriel Attal, Parliamentary Minister Franck Riester and government spokesman Olivier Véran at an emergency meeting in the Elysée Palace. Should it become apparent on Thursday afternoon that Republican deputies will be fickle, then he did not want to dare an open vote, it was said afterwards. The Prime Minister would then resort to Article 49 of the Constitution.

Also on Wednesday evening, Macron had made final arrangements in the Elysée Palace to organize votes for the pension reform. As "Le Parisien" reports, he even had the Corsican Regional Council President Gilles Simeoni call. Simeoni wants more autonomy for Corsica and is actually angry with Macron because he takes his time and largely sits out the promised transfer of powers.

Republican lawmakers reported that they were similarly courted. One of them's mobile phones rang and Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire was on the line. The minister is said to have promised him that he would examine investment projects in his constituency with particular goodwill if he voted for the pension reform. Parliamentary Minister Franck Riester is also said to have spent a lot of time on the phone. The government had become a call center, it was said on the radio.