On Thursday, March 16th, 2023, Elisabeth Borne invoked article 49.3 of the French Constitution to bypass the senatorial vote on a controversial law raising the retirement age for the average citizen from 62 to 64. While a lot has happened in the last two months, there were also four crucial months leading up to the Prime Minister’s use of the Constitutional Article. 

The timeline for this issue drags back to November of last year when the government started discussing the issue of retirement more with media outlets as they started confirming timelines. While retirement has been a topic of discussion for much longer, Emmanuel Macron had decided to tackle the issue publicly then. In November, the government spokesperson had confirmed that announcements would be made in December, and the Labor Minister had discussed increasing the minimum amount given to retirees. 

This issue was a central point to Macron’s reelection campaign in 2021 and early 2022, but the statements made during his election rarely discussed changing the age of retirement, it was more about the amount given for retirement. In an interview during the election cycle, he did not talk about increasing the age required to retire, opting instead to discuss the benefit of his new reform ideas to increase the amount paid to all retirees.

This issue was brought back to the forefront last December, when the reform was originally supposed to be presented on the 15th, but was moved last minute to January to allow more discussion between the re-elected party and the new leaders of other parties in government. Final edits were made during that time, and while the exact differences are unknown, these discussions proved very useful in the few months following.

January is when the chaos started picking up. The text was presented on the 10th, which was already unpopular with the public, as this was when it was shown that most people not under a special clause would have to work two more years to be able to retire. This proposed reform was unanimously disliked by all unions, which are called syndicates in France. 

These syndicates called for a major day of strikes on January 19th, with the possibility of further strikes. Elisabeth Borne called for the syndicates to “not penalize the French people” two days after presenting the reform, to no avail. The strikes began on January 19th, 2023. With the strikes came peaceful protests, which blocked streets in major French cities. 

According to syndicates and the Government, there were between 1.2 to 2 million protesters across all of France, with indications between 80,000 and 400,000 in Paris alone. This was nothing compared to the 31st, where estimates ranged from 1.3 to 2.5 million protesters nationally. This was one of France’s biggest protests in its entire history.

February saw fewer issues, as more non-Macron-aligned politicians started publicly disapproving of the reform, which led most people to think that the reform would not pass. While strikes were still happening (Half the regional trains were disrupted, and 20% of major train lines were canceled), no new major news was occurring.

March was the climax of this entire discussion, as it is during this month that Macron’s cabinet invoked the “Quarante-Neuf Trois”, or article 49.3 of the French constitution. Even before the use of the bypass, protests at the start of the month showed record numbers of mobilization, with up to 3.5 million people by the biggest syndicate estimates. While these numbers are most likely inflated, even the police stated there were at least 1.3 Million people in the streets, and that number was likely shrunk slightly, even if it would be one of the biggest in history.

As time over the last 3 months elapsed, we saw a decrease in the number of people striking, but an increase in the number of protesters, even if such an increase was very slight. The syndicates called March 7th a “Historical Mobilization” for their record numbers. This was also the day that senators began looking at and discussing Article 7 of the reform, about the infamous retirement age increase.

And then, on March 16th, disaster struck. The prime minister, in a very fiery speech against the room of other governmental parties, called upon Article 49.3, stating “I do not doubt… …that there will be one or more motions of censure, a vote will thus occur, as it is due. It is such that parliamentary democracy will have the last word.” While it is true that two such motions came out, neither vote passed, failing by a slim gap of 9 votes.

Article 49.3 was reduced in 2008 when it was edited to only be possibly used in financial or social security reforms or laws. Before 2008, it could be used for anything. According to FranceInfo, this use of 49.3 was the 100th use of the article ever, which is fitting for the level of protests that stemmed from this discussion. A motion of censure can be activated on a few occasions, and the activation of Article 49.3 is one of them. This can be used to declare the current government inept to represent the people, and according to the official French Government, “The government is overturned”, leading to a new presidential and parliamentary election. 

After the very tumultuous Parliamentary session, two major protests were organized in March. Both, the 23rd and 28th, were very violent, particularly in Paris. Every major new organization was covering the protests live, and the smaller outlets were at the heart of the action while live-streaming Paris on popular apps like TikTok. Police sources stated that these protests included “mortars and acid” being used against law enforcement. Some on both sides of this conflict were calling for revolution and the toppling of the government.

On the other side of the accusations of violence, it was pretty clear in videos and live streams that a special police unit was active during these protests. BRAV-M, as they are called, are 2 police officers on a motorcycle used to disperse protesters rapidly. However, there have been many statements made against this force, as they are infamous for their heavy use of force. In a video, a police officer was heard saying “You won’t be getting into a police van to go to the station, you will be getting into something else, called an ambulance, and going to the hospital.”

Overall, the last 6 months have been hectic for France, with strikes & protests being used by the general public to counter a cloak & dagger move by the presidential party to usurp voting rights from the Parliament. This succeeded, and while strikes are still happening, they are waning while the reform is marked as passed. Violence was used on both sides, which has pushed everyone on edge, between police brutality and makeshift weapons.