The French government and its Prime Minister, Élisabeth Borne, have survived a no-confidence vote in the National Assembly. Borne heads a government led by President Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance Party (formerly known as La République en Marche !).

The no-confidence vote had been triggered by the government’s use of Article 49.3 of the French Constitution, a rarely used provision which allows for governmental passage of certain bills without a vote of the full National Assembly.

Roger Cohen reports that “The French National Assembly rejected a no-confidence motion against the government of President Emmanuel Macron, ensuring that a fiercely contested bill raising the retirement age to 64 from 62 becomes the law of the land.”

Cohen notes that “Lawmakers were also voting on a second, and final, no-confidence motion filed by the far-right National Rally party. It has virtually no chance of passing, as most opposition lawmakers vowed not to support a motion put forward by the far right. The first motion received 278 votes, nine short of the 287 needed to pass. The close result reflected widespread anger at the overhaul to the pension law, at Mr. Macron for his apparent aloofness and at the way the measure was rammed through Parliament last week without a full vote on the bill itself.”

President Macron’s sweeping pension reform proposal has been highly controversial, provoking protests across France over the past several months. Macron has been accused of arbitrary rule and tyranny over his use of Article 49.3 to pass this major pension reform.

For more on this breaking news, see reporting in the New York Times and Le Monde. I will try to post additional resources as they become available.

For broader historical context on French political culture and protest culture, see Charles Tilly, The Contentious French (1986).