How did Article 49.3 of the French Constitution seal the fate of a democracy?

By: F. Najafi

In an effort to save France's pension system from insolvency, Macron seeks to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64, a controversial move that has triggered weeks of demonstrations across the country. The general public in France is not in favour of President Emmanuel Macron's pension reforms. However, Macron and his Renaissance party advanced their widely reviled pension reform, ultimately bypassing the National Assembly and enacting the amendment through Article 49.3 without the approval of the nation's legislative body. Article 49, paragraph 3, of the French Constitution stipulates that the government may pass a bill after deliberation in the cabinet meeting without a vote in the National Assembly.

Within the next twenty-four hours, legislators have the option of calling for a motion of no confidence. If more than half the legislators vote in favour of the no confidence resolution, the bill will be rejected and the administration will have to resign. If neither of these scenarios happens, the draft becomes law. Since the 1958 constitution was enacted, there has been only one successful vote of no confidence in France, and that was in 1962.

Macron was re-elected for a second term last spring, and Élisabeth Borne has served as prime minister ever since, but since he failed to secure a clear majority in the National Assembly in the 2022 elections, the French government has had to invoke Article 49.3 ten times since the last autumn. Article 49.3 has been used more than a hundred times by different governments in the Fifth French Republic.

Any French administration may only invoke Article 49.3 once per parliamentary session, but may do so as often as needed when crafting the annual budget. The leaders of labour unions and Macron's opponents have warned that using Article 49.3 to bypass the pension bill will make it more divisive and have more far-reaching implications, which could fuel the social discontent and violence of the demonstrators who have been marching and striking across France for the past two months.