There were no surprises. The National Assembly rejected this Monday, March 20 the motion of cross-partisan censure. This motion had been tabled by the group of independent deputies Liot, after the triggering of 49.3 by Elisabeth Borne to pass the pension reform.
However, it was almost adopted: this first motion of censure received 278 votes out of the 287 necessary. He therefore missed only nine votes for his adoption, more than what was expected. In details, 19 Republican deputies (out of the 61 in the group) voted for the motion of censure tabled by Liot, despite the instructions of the president of the group Olivier Marleix. Among them, Ian Boucard, Fabien Di Filippo, Julien Dive, Pierre-Henri Dumont or even Maxime Minot and Aurélien Pradié, spearhead of the protest against the pension reform at LR.
The RN deputies as well as the Nupes deputies voted for this motion of censure, as did 18 of the 20 deputies of the Liot group and four of the five non-registered deputies, including Nicolas Dupont-Aignan and Adrien Quatennens.
The motion of censure of the RN collects 94 votes
The second motion of censure, tabled by RN deputies, was unsuccessful. She collected only 94 votes out of the 287 needed. In detail, the 88 RN deputies voted for, as did three LR deputies (Pierre Cordier, Fabien Di Filippo, Maxime Minot) and a deputy from the socialist and related group (Christian Baptiste) and two non-registered (Véronique Besse and Nicolas Dupont-Aignan).
The rejection of the two motions of censure led to the final adoption by Parliament of the pension reform project providing for a postponement of the legal age from 62 to 64 years. The left like the RN group have already announced referrals to the Constitutional Council, which will have to decide before the promulgation of the highly contested reform project.
In a statement to AFP, Elisabeth Borne said she was “determined to continue to carry out the necessary transformations”. The head of government arrived at the Elysée on Monday evening. Emmanuel Macron will receive the parliamentarians of the majority on Tuesday evening.
The oppositions, who have been scrapping for weeks on the text, have called for the resignation of Elisabeth Borne. This government “is already dead”, declared the leader of the Insoumis in the Assembly, Mathilde Panot. The leader of La France insoumise Jean-Luc Mélenchon called for “going to popular censorship”, “in all places and in all circumstances”. Elisabeth Borne “must leave” or “the president must resign her”, added the president of the RN Marine Le Pen group.