by French President Emmanuel Macron rejected parliament, opting instead to push through a wildly unpopular bill that would raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 by activating a special constitutional power on Thursday.
The risky move is expected to trigger a swift vote of no confidence in Macron’s government.
The decision was made just minutes before the vote was scheduled to take place because the government had no guarantee that the bill would win a majority in the National Assembly, the lower house of the French parliament.
The bill is the flagship legislation of Macron’s second term. The unpopular plan has sparked large strikes and protests across the country since January.
As lawmakers gathered in the National Assembly on Thursday to vote on the bill, left-wing lawmakers stormed into the Marseillaise, the French national anthem, preventing Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne from speaking and causing the speaker to adjourn.
The atmosphere was tense outside parliament as heavily armed guards and riot police surrounded the picturesque neighborhoods around the National Assembly.
The previous Thursday, the Senate approved the bill in a vote of 193-114, a recount that was largely expected as the conservative majority in the upper house of parliament favors raising the retirement age.
Nearly 500,000 people protested against the bill across the country on Wednesday. Students planned to march on the National Assembly headquarters on Thursday as garbage collectors held a strike that has caused rubbish to pile up around the French capital.
Macron’s alliance lost its parliamentary majority last year, forcing the government to rely on conservative lawmakers to pass the bill. Lawmakers on the left and the far right are strongly opposed and the Conservatives are divided, making the outcome unpredictable.
The French leader wants to raise the retirement age so that workers put more money into the system, which the government says is on track to run a deficit.
Macron has promoted pension changes as a central part of his vision to make the French economy more competitive, but the economic challenges have sparked widespread unrest across Western Europe.
In Britain on Wednesday, teachers, junior doctors and public transport staff were on strike for higher wages to match rising prices. And Spain’s leftist government joined unions in announcing a “historic” deal to save its pension system by raising social security costs for the highest wages.
