French President François Hollande was forced to use an emergency measure to push through economic reforms after members of parliament from his own Socialist Party vowed to reject it.
Article 49.3 of the French constitution was used to pass economy minister Emmanuel Macron’s bill without a vote in the National Assembly.
The bill, dubbed “La Loi Macron,” will now need to be voted by the Senate, unless the government chooses to use the article again, which would be exceptional. Being forced to use the measure shows the challenge Mr Macron and Mr Hollande face as they try to jumpstart an economy that has barely grown in three years, driving joblessness to a record high.
To many within Mr Hollande’s party, the bill gives breaks to businesses and reduces that job security that has been a hallmark of the French labour market.
“I won’t take the risk of a project that I consider essential being rejected,” prime minister Manuel Valls told parliament, announcing the decision to use the emergency measure. The government wants to “start the country down the road to reform.”
Mr Hollande has little room for manoeuvre at a time when the European Commission is assessing whether France is moving fast enough on overhauling its stagnant economy.
Among Mr Macron’s proposals are speeding up settlement of disputed firings, removing the threat of prison for bosses who breach labour laws, shaking up professions such as notaries and easing restrictions on Sunday shopping.
“What the French want from us is to move forward,” Mr Macron said in the National Assembly on Tuesday.
“We can’t not do anything.”
Mr Macron, 37, has invoked the former British Labour prime minister Tony Blair to describe what he wants to achieve with an omnibus reform bill aimed at reviving the nation’s stalled economy.
He sees his plan as a significant turning point for French socialists, not unlike that made by Mr Blair when he asked that Labour drop a commitment to nationalize industry known as Clause IV.
The 1995 move let Blair position himself as business friendly and helped him win power two years later. The 49.3 clause, that helps avoid ministerial crises, was last used by former prime minister Dominique de Villepin in 2006 to push through a contract for first jobs, called “contrat de premiere embauche.” The government later withdrew the unpopular law.
– Bloomberg
