8/11/2023 0 Comments Ambition strikesMacron has given the diplomatic cell at the Élysée even more weight in policy setting and policymaking. France’s constitution lets the foreign policy decisionmaking process rest in the hands of a few individuals. In terms of foreign policy, not much change is to be expected, though. If that occurs, some projections suggest that the far-right Rassemblement National (National Front) and the left-wing coalition NUPES would receive the two largest shares of the votes, and Macron’s Renaissance would come in third. Macron also committed to working with unions on implementing the pension reform.īy Hubert Védrine With Dominique Moisi 2001Īnother option on the table - which Macron has rejected, so far - is a dissolution of the National Assembly. He said that he would not yield to violence and that he was now waiting for the Constitutional Council’s final decision on the reform, which it should announce by the end of April. On March 24, Macron gave a much-expected interview to explain the situation and the way forward. He has now tasked her with a “ widening of the presidential majority,” which will certainly entail tilting to the right, as both Macron and Borne have little cachet with left-wing voters. Macron is adamant that he will, though Borne needs to find a way out of the current impasse. There were questions following the no-confidence votes on whether Macron would keep Élisabeth Borne as prime minister. However, there is a question now of how he can overcome political divides and at the same time present the French population with a comprehensive, inclusive, and participatory solution. Macron has long said that “en même temps” (meaning “at the same time” in French) - i.e., working simultaneously on a variety of objectives and overcoming traditional divides - was why he wanted to become president. It is an open question whether the “ Macron method” in foreign policy, where he puts forward an initiative and then tries to gather momentum and consensus around it, will be applied to French domestic politics. He has since been struggling with a relative majority, preventing him from pushing the reform agenda he believes he was elected to implement and forcing him to make deals with different political parties inside the National Assembly. Macron has said that he will not back down, though there is precedent for the government using Article 49.3 and then later withdrawing the law in response to massive and continuous public protests.Īfter winning the presidential election last year and beating Marine Le Pen, Macron found himself short of a full majority in the subsequent legislative elections. The decision resulted in the government facing two votes of no confidence, which it didn’t lose - but the main one, pushed by a centrist minister of parliament, fell short by only nine votes, indicating how volatile the political situation in France is right now. After Macron’s government lost its absolute majority in the National Assembly in the 2022 legislative elections - leaving it unable to pass the law through a simple majority - the government decided to use a constitutional tool called Article 49.3, which allows it to pass a law in parliament without a vote on the text. This was the 10th day of national mobilization since January 19, 2023, and the demonstrations show no sign of stopping. More than one million protestors took to the streets in France on March 24, 2023, in response to President Emmanuel Macron’s proposed pension reforms, which would raise the country’s retirement age from 62 to 64.
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