French government survives no confidence vote, imposes labour reform

Record ID: 103918

  • Title: French government survives no confidence vote, imposes labour reform
  • Date: 12th May 2016
  • Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (MAY 12, 2016) (REUTERS) VARIOUS EXTERIORS OF FRENCH NATIONAL ASSEMBLY PROTESTERS STANDING OUTSIDE
  • Embargoed: 27th May 2016 18:41
  • Keywords: France protests labour reform vote Manuel Valls Paris
  • Location: PARIS, FRANCE
  • City: PARIS, FRANCE
  • Country: France
  • Topics: Lawmaking,Government/Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA0014HI8F2F
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: France's Socialist government survived on Thursday (May 12) a parliament no-confidence vote after it resorted to a decree to bypass opposition to a flagship labour reform bill.
    Some 246 lawmakers voted in favour of the motion, the president of the National Assembly said as he read out the result, short of the 288 votes needed to secure an absolute majority in the lower house of parliament.
    The vote coincided with a day of protests across the country, and was tabled by the opposition conservatives whose parliamentary leader Christian Jacob said whatever the result, Prime Minister Manuel Valls had lost the support of the people.
    "Today you will win time for yourself, your ministers, your Socialist lawmakers, who above all fear facing the electorate. But don't worry, that moment will come. It will come in a year's time. Be ready for the torrent that will engulf you, a measure of the level of disappointment of your voters and of the disillusionment of the French people. There will only be a handful of you left on these benches, as there are today, and justice will have been done because Francois Hollande will have bankrupted France, betrayed his allies and profoundly divided the French people," Jacob said before the vote.
    The government faced a bid by leftwingers in the chamber to table their own no confidence vote but it failed and Prime Minister Manuel Valls said colleagues from the Socialist benches who rebelled against the government were not facing up to their responsibilities.
    "This step, this risky step, has one merit deep down: differentiating those who rely on the past from those who are preparing for the future, those who are prepared to govern from those who are happy just to make statements from the comfort of opposition, because it is hard to face up to one's responsibilities in tumultuous times," Valls said before the vote.
    The government of Prime Minister Manuel Valls was expected to survive the confidence vote easily since it was called by opposition parties that do not have enough votes to get it through.
    But the call for a wave of street protests exposes the government to the risk of escalating popular opposition and violence over reform that three in four people are against, according to pollsters.
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