Politico Europe delivers a blunt verdict: the use of Article 49.3 is a “defeat”A “huge political setback” for Emmanuel Macron. The president used “the nuclear option” of the French Constitution, to have a text adopted, without a vote by Parliament, because he was afraid of not having a majority. “There was a lack of support in Parliament, adds the New York Times, and it is a decision that will certainly inflame a little more the political climate in France already heavy with a tense confrontation”.
The German Spiegel also speaks of a “brutal” decision. “Macron goes in force” adds The evening in Belgium. Already, Thursday March 16 in the morning La Vanguardia in Barcelona evoked this hypothesis of recourse to article 49.3, “a signal of political weakness” for the Catalan newspaper. The government may even fall, predicts La Vanguardia, the Assembly may be dissolved and France may fall into instability, all in the context that we know: war in Europe and economic tensions. still Thursday, March 16 in the morning, even before the dramatic change of 49.3, Le Soir in Brussels evoked “a giant poker” and the Swiss press “a Russian roulette”.
Amazement at the lack of dialogue
Foreign newspapers also return to these weeks of social conflict and demonstrations. They insist on the most visible conflict of recent days, that of the garbage collectors. With for example a drawing by Kroll, in The evening from Brussels. We see Emmanuel Macron perched on a huge pile of garbage bags, binoculars on his eyes, he scrutinizes the National Assembly. At the bottom of the garbage pile, two rats comment. The first : “President, if the reform passes, you put everything away and it’s over?” The second, looking delighted with the rubbish, retorts: “Don’t talk about bad luck”. For the New York Timesthe French president, by refusing to negotiate with the unions, took the risk of “cementing his image of Jupiter by passing his orders from above and taking advice from only a handful of people”. “Emmanuel Macron has remained silent, he is driven by a culture of avoidance”add the Frankfurter Allegemeine Zeitung in Germany. He can become “a lame duck”, adds the Guardian in London.
More generally on the strikes and demonstrations of recent weeks, the European press underlines the extent to which the opposition to the reform has remained in the majority in France. Despite the nuisances linked to the strikes.
Hats off to union unity
THE Guardian British salute the “sacred fight” carried out by the unions, and their unity. “They have shown that they can speak on behalf of the working classes and set the tone for other fights elsewhere in Europe”, concludes the British newspaper. Because France is not the only one to experience social conflicts. In Asia, the Chinese press often likes to point out that Western democracies are shaken by internal conflicts and serial strikes. And the New York Times notes that the UK is also mired in conflict. With another day of massive strike on Wednesday, especially in education, the day of the presentation of the Budget by the British government.