PARIS: France’s government on Sunday held its ground over a bitterly contested pension reform rammed through parliament without a vote, a day before it faces crucial no-confidence motions.
“There will be no majority to bring the government down, but it will be a moment of truth,” Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said of the two efforts to unseat the cabinet planned for Monday afternoon.
“I understand our countrymen’s fears and anxieties, but we will definitely not improve things by denying economic reality,” he said.
Monday’s two no-confidence motions have been filed by a small group of centrist MPs and the far-right National Rally.
Although President Emmanuel Macron’s camp has no absolute majority in the lower house National Assembly, it is the largest group and all of the opposition would need to unite for one of the votes to pass. Most MPs from the conservative Republicans party are not expected to back a no-confidence motion.
Republicans chief Eric Ciotti wrote on Sunday that his constituency office had been pelted with rocks overnight.“The killers who did this want to put pressure on my vote on Monday,” Ciotti wrote on Twitter, posting pictures showing smashed windows and threatening graffiti. — AFP
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