French President Emmanuel Macron survives votes of no confidence as he plans to raise retirement age from 62 to 64

Emmanuel Macron’s government survived two no-confidence votes organized by opposition MPs on Monday on extremely unpopular pension reforms.

Monday’s National Assembly ballot was triggered by the head of state raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 without a parliamentary vote.

The motion of no confidence tabled by a small group called Liot garnered the support of 278 deputies in the National Assembly, short of only 9 votes, a surprisingly close result. Another filed by Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party won only 94 votes because the other opposition parties remain reluctant to join forces with the far-right party.

The no-confidence motions are the result of Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne triggering clause 49.3 of the French constitution last week, passing the bill without a parliamentary vote. Now that the motions have failed, the pension reform raising the retirement age from two years to 64 can be passed and the Borne government will remain in place.

Shortly after the vote, small groups of protesters gathered around parliament and clashed with police.