Frankreich

Use of force signals ‘crisis of authority’ as France’s pension battle turns to unrest

Fury at President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to bypass parliament on pension reform has sparked days of unrest across the country, reviving scrutiny of police’s heavy-handed tactics and leaving French cities shrouded in tear gas and smoke – with no end in sight to an increasingly bitter standoff.

Zitat von France24 - 24.03.23

[...] The unrest did, however, force the French president to postpone a planned visit by Britain’s new king Charles III, whom Macron – dubbed a “presidential monarch” by his critics – was due to host at the gilded royal palace of Versailles.

“The reunion of kings in Versailles has been dispersed by the people,” leftist firebrand Jean-Luc Mélenchon, a fierce critic of Macron, promptly mocked in a tweet. “The English are well aware that Darmanin is useless when it comes to security,” he added in a dig at France’s interior minister, who was savaged by the British press following the fiasco of last year’s Champions League final in Paris.

Darmanin, typically considered a hardliner in Macron’s government, was among ministers who pleaded with the president not to trigger article 49.3 – and for good reason. He knew the backlash would fall under his remit as months of peaceful protests gave way to violent outbursts of anger.

From the start of the protest movement, trade unions had urged the government not to ignore the millions of peaceful demonstrators turning out in cities, towns and villages up and down the country, warning of dire consequences should it remain deaf to their anger.

“I’m warning the president, he must withdraw this reform before the catastrophe unfolds,” Laurent Berger, the head of the moderate CFDT union, France’s largest, repeated on Monday. “We’ve been scrupulously legit so far, but the temptation of violence is there.” [...]

The escalating arrests are a consequence of both a French tradition and the government’s current predicament, said Sebastian Roché, a sociologist who has written extensively about policing methods in France and other European countries.

“Maintaining public order is the most political of police tasks, coming directly under the control of the interior minister, which is a French specificity,” he explained. “It follows a nationwide strategy, which is why you see large-scale arrests everywhere and not at the discretion of local police forces.”

In the current context, Roché added, heavy-handed policing stems from the “crisis of authority” undermining Macron’s minority and deeply unpopular government. “When a government chooses force it is always because its authority is weakened,” he said.

Breaking his silence on the pension dispute this week, Macron said the “crowd” had “no legitimacy” in the face of France’s elected officials. In an interview on Wednesday, he appeared to draw a parallel between violent protests in France and the assaults on the US Congress and Brazil’s state institutions staged by supporters of former presidents Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro. He also accused trade unions of refusing to seek a compromise.

So far, the strategy has failed to pay off. An Odoxa poll conducted after his interview found that 70 percent of respondents felt the government was to blame for the clashes and that 83 percent thought the unrest would worsen.[...]

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Ich dachte bisher immer, France24 sei so was wie n-tv - also irgendein News-Ableger eines privaten Medienkonzerns - aber tatsächlich ist der Sender (laut Wikipedia) komplett im Besitz des französischen Staates und wird über Gebühren und Zuschüsse aus dem Staatshaushalt finanziert.

Erstaunlich, dass die so relativ Regierungsfern über diese Staatskrise berichten.

Das eher linksliberale, von einem Ex-Chefredakteur der Qualitätszeitung Le Monde gegründete Portal Mediapart richtet sich hier recht klar gegen den zunehmend autoritär agierenden Präsidenten, liefert aber ganz interessante Hintergünde aus dem politischen Paris. Offenbar hat Sonnenkönig Macron den Vorschlaghammer von Article 49-3 nicht nur am Parlament, sondern auch an seiner eigenen Premierministerin vorbei gezogen.

The beginning of the end for Macron’s presidency?

The French government on Thursday announced it will use an article of the constitution that allows it to adopt as legislation its proposed and hotly contested reform of the pensions system without a vote in Parliament. In this op-ed analysis of the move, Mediapart political correspondent Ilyes Ramdani argues that it is not only the latest manifestation of President Emmanuel Macron’s top-down exercise of power, but it may also represent one too many, opening up a profound crisis into which his second and final term in office is now plunged.

Zitat von Mediapart - 16.03.23

[...] The French prime minister had attempted to avoid using of the special powers of the 49-3 article of the constitution, a legal last resort but which represents a snub to the democratic process. “I don’t envisage the hypothesis of a 49-3,” she told French TV channel France 2 in early February, while government spokesman Olivier Véran has repeatedly declared that it did not want to use the article. Even on Thursday morning, Borne was in fact trying to convince President Emmanuel Macron to proceed with a vote in Parliament despite the uncertainty of the result.[...]

Well aware of the shockwave that would result from using the 49-3, Macron played for time, mobilising his camp to throw all their energy into winning over the potentially missing votes. On Wednesday evening and Thursday morning, he held urgent talks at the Élysée Palace with members of government and its political allies. Another meeting was held at Thursday midday. But at 2.45pm, just 15 minutes before the session for the vote in the National Assembly was due to commence, the president made the decision to proceed with the 49-3 article and called together a special meeting with government ministers to approve and enact the measure.[...]

It is one more snub to parliamentary democracy, and an episode that considerably weakens it. By using as its vehicle for the reform an envelope of draft legislation for modifying the financing of the social welfare system, the government deliberately limited the time given to pensions in the parliamentary debates. To this it added its powers to block voting in the Senate, the upper house, and now forces the adoption of the pension system reform. The executive has used every power that the constitution allows it, from article 47-1, to articles 44-3 and 49-3, to climb over Parliament.

Persuaded that he has right on his side, Macron had thought he could decide against the will of all others. Far from his re-election campaign promises of political “reinvention” and a “new method”, he has centralised decision-making and choice over the rhythm of a reform that has hit a brick wall. Just a quarter of an hour before Élisabeth Borne began her address to Parliament on Thursday, most of the members of government and the senior members of his political camp were unaware of Macron’s decision.

His strategy that combines bulldozing and scorched earth policies may be applauded by some, namely the financial markets, economic forces, the wealthiest in the country and a section of the retired (and even then…), but that does not keep a democracy alive, nor preserve the unity of a society already fractured in part

The broad alliance of trades unions against the reform announced on Thursday their intention of continuing and widening the mobilisation of the past two months. On the ground, prefects and local politicians have warned of the dangers of the rising anger at the government’s handling of the reform and voice concern that the outcome in Parliament on Thursday may be the last straw. Meanwhile, the far-right is already rubbing its hands in glee at the fire that has been lit by the arsonist inside the Élysée Palace.

After all that has happened, what remains for Macron’s second five-year term in office? His prime minister is discredited, and his government is paralyzed. Inside the National Assembly, not only does his party not have an absolute majority but it would also have every difficulty in gaining one. Beyond the political sphere, the rupturing of relations with the trade unions appears now so profound that it bodes the worst for social dialogue.

The emperor has no clothes, other than the veil of legitimacy leant by his election by default in face of the danger represented by the far-right. But the crisis is not about him alone, for it is leading the whole country into a worrying fog that is menacing its democracy.

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Zitat

Macron said the “crowd” had “no legitimacy” in the face of France’s elected officials.

Das ist gut!

Zitat von Brecht

Nach dem Aufstand des 17. Juni

Ließ der Sekretär des Schriftstellerverbands

In der Stalinallee Flugblätter verteilen

Auf denen zu lesen war, daß das Volk

Das Vertrauen der Regierung verscherzt habe

Und es nur durch verdoppelte Arbeit

zurückerobern könne. Wäre es da

Nicht doch einfacher, die Regierung

Löste das Volk auf und

Wählte ein anderes?

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Immerhin hat Monieur Le Président - im Gegensatz zu so manch altgedienten deutschen Journalismusveteranen - verstanden, dass die liberale Demokratie im bürgerlichen Staat nicht die Herrschaft des "Volkes" ist.

Zitat von AlxBedn

Staatstragend genug ist man aber immerhin noch, Melenchon als Brandstifter zu bezeichnen.

Ja. Aber die sind ja auch nicht automatisch links, nur weil sie nicht regierungsnah berichten.

Deutsche Qualitätsjournalisten (privat) lassen unterdessen keine Gelegenheit aus, den Linken die Schuld daran in die Schuhe zu schieben, dass die Rechtsradikalen Zulauf bekommen, wenn der "liberale" Präsident mal ordentlich durchgregiert:

https://www.instagram.com/reel…oDDi/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

So blockiert man in Frankreich eine Autobahn 😜

Diese Amerikaner verstehen halt nichts von europäischer Demokratiekultur.

Auch hierzulande haben linksextreme Ideologen offenbar ein zweifelhaftes Demokratieverständnis. Zum Glück ist der deutsche Linksliberalismus wehrhaft und Widerspruchslustig:

(Symboltweet)

vielleicht kann er grad nicht mit wagenknecht frische austern schlürfen gehen, weils lieferprobleme wegen den streiks gibt.

Auch wenn als "nur" rhetorische Frage markiert, hier kam der D. Dehm her. Den weiteren Bezug müsste man dann wohl den fragen, der da gepostet hat.

Zum Bezug von Wagenknecht kann ich in dem Kontext hier erstmal nix beitragen, aber auf der hauen hier manche, wie es scheint, so ganz prinzipiell gerne ein.