Faced with the challenge against the pension reform and the use of 49.3, the executive does not intend to bend. However, in the history of the Fifth Republic, several reforms were reviewed or withdrawn after a strong mobilization in the street. Some have been maintained despite the protests.
To pass the pension reform project without going through the vote of the deputies, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne engaged the responsibility of her government, Thursday, March 16, by resorting to 49.3. This situation is not new and recalls, by the protest it generates, several major reforms of the Fifth Republic. In the past, the mobilization has pushed the various governments to back down or, on the contrary, to maintain their plans by remaining “straight in their boots”.
In 1994, the “young minimum wage” was repealed
At the end of 1993, faced with a high unemployment rate, which reached 10% of the working population, the Balladur government set up the CIP (professional integration contract). A fixed-term contract for people under 26 and up to baccalaureate + 3 years. The law was passed on December 20, 1993 in the National Assembly and mis implemented by a decree of February 23, 1994. The professional integration contract, nicknamed the “SMIC-youth”provides for a remuneration of 80% of the SMIC, or even less if the contract is associated with training. Conditions that provoke the anger of the street. In one of its newspapers, France 3 talks about “more than a month of thunderous opposition” led by high school students, students and trade unionists.
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The CIP was finally withdrawn on March 30 in the face of pressure from the streets. On April 7, 1994, a motion of censure was tabled but only obtained 87 votes against the 289 required. The Balladur government finally replaces the CIP with aid of 1,000 francs per month paid for nine months to companies that take on a contract for at least a year and a half with a young person under 26 years of age.
In 1995, the Juppé plan put France on hold for three weeks
It was one of the biggest strike movements of the Fifth Republic: the strikes of 1995. When Jacques Chirac had barely been elected President of the Republic, his Prime Minister Alain Juppé presented a plan to reform the Social security and pension scheme. An immediately unpopular project, in an already turbulent social context marked by several major strike movements. The presentation of the plan to the National Assembly, on November 15, 1995, triggered anger. For three weeks, the country is paralyzed, trains and subways are blocked.
On December 2, a motion of censure was tabled against the draft Social Security reform plan, the SNCF plan contract, and the alignment of special pension plans with private sector employees. Of the 284 votes needed to obtain a majority, the motion, tabled by Laurent Fabius of the Socialist Party and Jean-Pierre Chevènement in particular, won only 87 votes.
On December 12, which marks the strongest moment of the protest, between one and two million people demonstrate to show their opposition to the Juppé plan. Faced with this large-scale dispute, Alain Juppé finally withdrew, three days later, from his plan the part concerning pensions but kept the other aspects concerning social security.
In 2006, the Villepin government finally renounced the CPE
Even if it was adopted thanks to article 49.3 on February 10, 2006, it is indeed the mobilization of the street which will push the government of Dominique De Villepin to remove the first employment contract (CPE). The CPE is this device, again very controversial, provided for in article 7 of the bill on equal opportunities, which was to reduce youth unemployment. This contract, of an indefinite duration, intended for at least 26 years, provided for a trial period of two years revocable at any time. Result: the youth and the unions find themselves in the streets for three months.
“The necessary conditions of confidence and serenity are not met either on the side of young people, nor on the side of companies to allow the application of the first hiring contract.”
Dominique De Villepin, Prime Minister
in Paris, April 10, 2006
If a motion of censure is filed on February 15, against the sole use of 49.3 when Dominique De Villepin was at Matignon, it fails and the dispute continues. In a retrospective in 2016, franceinfo explained that‘“ToAt the height of the movement, one to three million people marched to demand the withdrawal of the reform”. On April 10, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin finally announced that he was backing down and abandoning his CPE which, he regretted at the time, had “not understood by all” as he saw “a crisis revealing social anxiety as much as a desire for modernization”. The law of April 21 repeals the CPE project and replaces it with integration assistance measures for young people in difficulty.
In 2016, the Labor law passes after three 49.3
In 2016, tension is still very high in the streets against the labor law presented by Myriam El Khomri, Minister of Labor and Employment of François Hollande while Manuel Valls is Prime Minister. On three occasions, Manuel Valls engages the responsibility of the government before the National Assembly with article 49.3. A single motion of censure will be tabled on May 12, after the first passage of the law in the Assembly, it will miss 44 votes out of the 288 necessary to be voted. The protest lasted a total of five months, with numerous demonstrations, some of which were marked by violence. But this time, the voice of the street does not bend the government of Manuel Valls, and the law will be promulgated on August 8, 2016.
In 2020, the Covid-19 leads to a suspension of the pension reform
If the demonstrations have sometimes made the governments of the Fifth Republic back down, in 2020 it is the Covid-19 pandemic which is pushing the government to suspend the pension reform.
Social protest was already strong with demonstrations in December 2019 against this “universal” point-based pension scheme with between 806,000 and 1.5 million people in the streets on December 5, 2019. In transport, at the SNCF and the RATP, the strike continues during the end of year celebrations and becomes the longest strike at the SNCF since its creation, the mobilization of teachers also reaches records.
The project was however adopted at first reading in the National Assembly on February 29, 2020 thanks to the use of 49.3 despite two motions of censure. As the Covid-19 epidemic progresses on the planet, it is the confinement that pushes the government to suspend the reform. Three years later, in 2023, the government takes over the file and proposes to shift the legal retirement age to 64 years.