Protests after France president survives confidence vote

Protesters set piles of rubbish on fire in central Paris on Monday after President Emmanuel Macron's government narrowly survived two votes of no-confidence in parliament. Macron says the pension reform is needed to keep the system from diving into deficit as France’s population ages. Protests were reported on Monday night in Dijon, Strasbourg – where protesters smashed the windows of a department store – Lyon, and Rennes. The failure of the no-confidence vote will be a relief to Macron. Had it succeeded, it would have sunk his government and killed the legislation, which is set to raise the retirement age by two years to 64.

More than 100 people were arrested in Paris alone in tense standoffs between protesters and security forces, police said, and on some of the French capital’s most prestigious avenues firefighters scrambled to put out piles of burning rubbish – left uncollected for days due to strikes and set on fire by protesters.

A first multiparty motion was rejected by nine votes while the 577-seat National Assembly overwhelmingly rejected a second motion brought by the far right. With the failure of both votes, the pension change is considered adopted. It will now go to the Constitutional Court for review and could become law in the coming days. The tight result in the first vote led some left-wing lawmakers to immediately call for Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne to resign.