SECTION 49.3. The use of 49.3 to adopt the pension reform on Thursday generated many reactions. What’s next? The vote on any motions of censure on Monday.
[Updated March 16, 2023 at 11:45 p.m.] Angry French people in the streets, fires, damage reported here and there, across the country, unions who unanimously call for a new day of interprofessional and national mobilization on March 23, and opposition elected officials more revolted than ever. Here is the report at the end of the evening, Thursday March 16, 2023, just a few hours after the government’s decision to resort to 49.3 to have the much-maligned pension reform adopted, without a vote.
Invited on the set of TF1 to justify herself, the Prime Minister recognized a form of failure. “We wanted to go to the vote”, assured Élisabeth Borne questioned by Gilles Bouleau, before conceding: “Some, within the LR group, played a personal card […]. We found that the account was not there .” However, the head of government denied having passed a text that would not have been discussed. “The text on which I engage my responsibility and that of the government, is the fruit of a compromise, of hours of discussion in Parliament, approved yesterday by deputies and senators, and in which we wanted to take into account account a certain number of specific situations”, insisted Elisabeth Borne. What about the censorship motions that are looming? “It will be the vote of those for or against the reform,” she replied.
With the use of 49.3, the deputies will oppose motions of censure and the hopes of the opposition crystallize around a transpartisan motion tabled by the centrist group LIOT joined by other deputies. The texts will be voted on Monday, presumably, and if adopted by an absolute majority, the pension reform will be rejected and the government overthrown. But nothing is less certain. Be that as it may, the holding of votes on these motions of censure, however, allowed Elisabeth Borne to recall during her speech, with a touch of irony: “A vote will therefore take place, as it should. And it is therefore parliamentary democracy that will have the last word.”
Until the morning of March 16, most elected representatives of the majority defended a vote in the National Assembly. A wiser voice to legitimize pension reform but risky given the uncertainty surrounding the majority. In the meantime, the presidential camp took the measure of the risks of not obtaining the majority of the votes of the deputies and did not want to rely on fate for the adoption of the pension reform.
Several elected representatives of the majority, ministers and even Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne preferred to draw article 49.3 to ensure the adoption of the text, despite the consequences that this implies, in particular a possible overthrow of the government. The tenant of Matignon also said to assume the fact of being “a fuse” in the event of recourse to 49.3, a necessary evil must think Macronie.
However, other majority deputies have called for the text to be voted on in the National Assembly, in particular Renaissance MP Constance Le Grip or MoDem Philippe Vigier. The latter defended this Thursday morning on France Inter: “The reform must pass […] and I hope that we can vote this afternoon. We must take the risk. When Nicolas Sarkozy made the constitutional reform , he won with one vote. Politics is also about taking risks”. But this position seemed more often motivated by the fear of seeing the government disavowed. If the motions of censure of the RN and LFI have little chance of succeeding, the cross-partisan motion of the center Charles de Courson signed by elected LR casts doubt on the future of the government.
Paragraph 3 of Article 49 of the Constitution, commonly referred to as 49.3, appears in Title V of the Constitution. This legal device is used to regulate the “relationships between the government and the Parliament”. The Prime Minister is the person who can make use of it after deliberation by the Council of Ministers. It is then possible to suspend the examination of a particularly controversial bill within the National Assembly, and therefore of all the negotiations that accompany it. This would allow the presidential camp to force through a text, therefore without a vote, despite opposition, and to speed up the legislative procedure, in particular by putting an end to any obstruction by parliamentarians.
The use of 49.3, however, has a price and each time the article is used, the government “engages its responsibility”. In other words, he takes the risk of having to resign if a motion of censure tabled by the opposition, within 24 hours, is passed. The law provides that in the event of a rejection of this motion of censure, “the bill or proposal is considered adopted.” On the other hand, if it is adopted, “the text is rejected and the Government is overthrown.” However, if no motion of censure is tabled within 24 hours, “the bill or proposal is considered adopted.”
The motion of censure is a major parliamentary tool. Its objective: to lead, if it is adopted, to the resignation of the Prime Minister as well as of his government. Under the use of Article 49.3 of the Constitution, it can be tabled by Members of Parliament. They must be at least 58, or one tenth of the National Assembly. To be adopted, it must collect 289 votes “for”, i.e. the absolute majority of the hemicycle, in this case 2587 votes since two seats are vacant. In the event of a relative majority (a majority of “for” but less than 289), it is not adopted. Today, in the National Assembly, the government of Emmanuel Macron has less than 289 deputies (249). Enough to raise fears of a possible overthrow of the government if all the oppositions sign the same motion of censure.
It is not the government of Elisabeth Borne that comes first but that of Michel Rocard because he too did not have an absolute majority in the Assembly. Michel Rocard therefore used it 28 times from 1988 to 1991. As the INA recalls, “five motions of censure, the only way to prevent the adoption of the law by overthrowing the government when its responsibility is engaged, were tabled against his government” but none of which was voted on. A few years later, under the presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy, a constitutional reform was introduced, notably reducing the use of 49.3 to one recourse per parliamentary session, except for the vote of the budget or Security financing bills social. The government of Elisabeth Borne therefore comes on March 16, 2023 to activate its eleventh 49.3.
