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š¢Weekly Dispatch - We're back!
09 April 2023 - Unions ramp up the pressure, Conflict brews between Emmanuel Macron and Elisabeth Borne, Assisted suicide comes to the fore, and Yaƫl Braun-Pivet tackles her deputies.
The Weekly Dispatch is your weekly update on major events in French and European politics, published on Sundays to give you the ideal summary of current affairs.
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This week
š¢Unions ramp up the pressure
š¤¼āāļøConflict brews between Macron and Borne
š„Assisted suicide comes to the fore
āļøYaĆ«l Braun-Pivet tackles her deputies
š¢Unions ramp up the pressure
No matter how much time passes, and no matter how much the government may be hoping for the best, the ongoing protests against Pension Reform are continuing throughout the country as everyone waits for the Constitutional Courtās decision.
As a reminder from a previous Dispatch, the Constitutional Court had a month from a call for a verdict being made to answer a demand, which means that a decision on the legality of Emmanuel Macronās flagship project is just on the horizon.
Regardless of timelines and legalities, however, the Gilets Jaunes ācrisisā showed us that a segment of the country is willing to launch into long-term contestations to extract blood from the governmental stone and to try to win these political fights.
At the end of its eleventh mass-protests day, the Intersyndical (āinter-Unionā en bon francais) has called for a twelfth day of mass mobilisation on Thursday, April 13th before the Constitutional Council makes its declaration.
Many have watched physical, on-the-ground support for the protests slowly decrease. The most recent figures published by the Ministry of the Interior show that āonlyā 570,000 marched across the country during the last protest.
The protests have increasingly attempted to target key state industries, with a notable effort to disrupt the work of fuel refineries across the country through work stoppages, all to apply pressure on the government through motorists.
Not only this, but the ongoing issue with garbage collection has been announced to continued and having experienced the "joyā of rats and garbage when I was in Paris a few weeks back, city-dwellers have all of my sympathies.
However, with the importance of the declaration by the Constitutional Council, and the aggressive campaigning being done by the opposition, most notably by Jean-Luc MĆ©lenchonās La France Insoumise, thereās every chance this one could be much bigger.
However, even if the legal text is validated by the Constitutional Council, regardless of the protest level on the 13th, the intersyndical has already declared that they will continue to protest the reform in the long term.
BenoĆ®t Teste of the FSU announced that they would āmobilize the same evening [of the decision] to demand the non-promulgationā of the reform and that failing this, they will also look into other opportunities such as a Referendum of Shared Initiative.
But, my dear readers, weāll discuss that when we cross that bridge, wonāt we?
š¤¼āāļøConflict brews between Macron and Borne
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As you all know, politics has gotten very interesting in France over the past year, and there have been some very interesting tactics employed, whether you think them unnecessary or not, that have had some impact on certain reputations.
Many have learned that thereās a very interesting effect when you repeatedly ask your Prime Minister to use Article 49.3 of the French constitution to force things through the AssemblĆ©e Nationale.
Even if it was, in many cases, necessary to ensure that the country had a budget and could continue to run.
However, with the awful scenes of Prime Minister Elizabeth Borne being screamed over by the opposition as she announced the most recent evocation of Article 49.3, it appears that there has been a turning point in her position and her attitude.
Many claimed that the President was sacrificing her to achieve his flagship policy, which was already cancelled once due to the subsequent Gilets Jaunes protests and COVID-19 pandemic, which seemed to go down as well as youād think.
As a result, our Prime Minister has decided to stand her ground and fight it out, building her position and doing what she can to survive in her own right while potentially building up to a conflict with our PResident.
Having already come out swinging against her ministers not too long ago, it seems that sheās now attempting to build a reputation as not just Emmanuel Macronās Prime Minister, but as a Prime Minister who represents the French.
Le Monde very recently put out an article which outlined the ongoing contention between the two leaders, with Elisabeth Borne advocating for a better relationship with the unions and attempts to avoid humiliating them through the process.
āThe unions must not come out of this sequence humiliated ā¦ [We have to respect] a period of convalescence [and] not rush things"
-Elisabeth Borne
This strategy clashes somewhat with the strategy being employed by the ĆlysĆ©e, which is playing hardball with Union leaders and is doing what it believes it must to force more responsible language and behaviour.
While visiting Berlin this week, Emmanuel Macron scolded the Unions, and notably CFDT leader Laurent Berger, for his behaviour and actions:
āWords have a meaningā¦ We cannot speak of a democratic crisis when the project has been explained, supported and assumed ā¦ letās not explain to me that the country is at a standstill.ā
-Emmanuel Macron
The ĆlysĆ©e also appears to be going to pains to regain control over the situation and make it clear who is boss, with the Presidentās team going to pains to explain who is really in charge of the process and who is leading the country.
āThe President is coordinating with the PM. The plan was given by the President during his interview at 1 p.m. on France 2 and TF1. He asked the PM to receive the unions and work on a roadmap for the coming monthsā
With Elisabeth Borne having already been gravely weakened by the repeated employment of 49.3 and her position as the manager of the pension reform process, alarm bells are ringing in Matignon regarding where things go from here.
Not only this, but with government actors beginning to go rogue (again), such as MarlĆØne Schiappa continuing her media career building with a front-page cover and an interview for Playboy, the foundations around Borne are beginning to weaken.
The lack of a solid political unit focused around her is becoming more and more of a liability.
š„Assisted suicide comes to the fore
An interesting topic has recently come to the fore of French politics due to the space opened by the near end of the pension reform process. One that has been discussed in backrooms, various national committees, and worldwide in recent years.
Considered to clash too much with the idea of the state as a guarantor of life, or with religious values, or simply being seen as too dangerous a topic to discuss due to the potential for fringe actors to claim that the government is just too happy to kill its citizens, assisted suicide has been relatively taboo.
However, being a topic that people have increasingly debated among families, friends and colleagues, and with various associations being very keen to give people an understanding of the actual process, it is a topic that President Macron believes the country is ready to discuss.
Announcing his plans on Monday 3rd April, Emmanuel Macron announced that he wants a bill on assisted suicide to be implemented āby the end of the summerā and that he wants to see a āFrench model of end of lifeā to be put in place that would open the right to this process.
The catalyst was a report by the Citizensā Convention on the end of life delivered to his desk, where 75.6% of the participants voted in favour of active assistance in dying through either assisted suicide or euthanasia.
With several European countries (Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Spain) already having legalised assisted dying, there is a clear point of reference for this topic, which should make the process easier
There is one catch, however: the goal of the process will be to ensure that the opinions of the medical world are also taken into account, with one key concern being the possibility of asking caregivers to perform a lethal act and the key psychological concerns that will naturally result from asking someone to end another human beingās life.
āļøYaĆ«l Braun-Pivet tackles her deputies
Letās end this dispatch with an interesting piece of news so that I donāt send you all away to eat your chocolate eggs in a wave of sadness:
The President of the AssemblƩe Nationale, Yaƫl Braun-Pivet sent a letter to various deputies this Friday to ask them to understand the gravity of the roles they hold in French society, and to demand that they uphold and respect the rules of the Assembly.
Criticising an āoften lamentable spectacleā, āserious dysfunctionsā, and a āworrying degradationā of the political debate in the Hemicycle, she has effectively launched an Assembly wide call to order to avoid the political horror show that occurred when Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne forced through the pension reform.
Headlining the letter,
āThe first months of the 16th legislatureĀ were clearly marked by serious individual or collective dysfunctions in the functioning of our working bodies and by a worrying deterioration in the serenity and quality of our exchanges"
-Yaƫl Braun-Pivet had this to say
She has reminded her deputies of several rules, such as a ban on brandishing signs in the hemicycle, the prohibition of telephones or communication tools that can be used to communicate with the outside world.
Naturally, certain opposition forces have complained loudly about this call to order. Why should anybody follow rules put in place to ensure proper governance and behaviour by the people who represent us?
Sandrine Rousseau (EELV - NUPES) was up in arms about being called to order due to breaking the rules of communication during debates, and had a borderline anarchistic position:
ā@YaelBRAUNPIVET we are not kids to be punished but deputies who oppose your pension reform. No call to order will silence or scare us. And thinking so is a big mistake.ā
One of Rousseauās colleagues, Mathilde Panot, the leader of La France Insoumise group in the AssemblĆ©e, had a very similar reaction and evoked a potential legal action at the European level to contest this:
āThe sanctions taken against the rebellious deputies opposed to the #RĆ©formeDesRetraites show that @YaelBRAUNPIVET is only an executor of the government's authoritarian excesses. We will seize the Council of State to challenge this decision, and if necessary, the ECHR (European Court of Human Rights)ā
As you can see, everything is going well in French politics, so on this cheerful note: go enjoy your easter eggs!
Joyeuses PĆ¢ques!
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