The latest vote of no-confidence against the French government, tabled by the left-wing opposition, was rejected by the parliament on Monday evening. It's the latest development in the pension reform battle which has shaken the country since January.
Put forward by the Nupes, a coalition of left-wing parties, it was the 17th motion in a year, to protest against the government's pension reform.
They are angry that the bill, raising the age of retirement from 62 to 64, was pushed through without a parliamentary vote, despite massive street protests.
However, Monday's motion only received 239 votes out of 577 deputies, far from the 289 majority needed to see it adopted.
The government has already survived multiple no-confidence votes over the pensions overhaul, even though President Emmanuel Macron's centrist party lost its overall majority in the lower-house National Assembly shortly after his re-election last year.
Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, appointed in May 2022, defended the "transparency" and the "coherence" of her actions over the course of what has been a rocky year.
"True political courage is to get out of posturing" and "to build majorities, even with those who do not think exactly like us", she said.
Expression of anger
Back in March, Borne used the controversial constitutional mechanism known as 49.3 to pass the law without a vote.
The opposition reacted by tabling a vote of no-confidence which the government survived by just nine votes.
Clémentine Autain, of the far-left France Unbowed party said on Monday despite the defeat, these motions were above all a way to "to express our anger with regard to a government and a President of the Republic who used the worst of the Fifth Republic (...) to impose a law that the French do not want".
"What is at stake today (...) is the possibility of putting an end to the discredit that the government is throwing on the National Assembly", declared the leader of the Socialist deputies Valérie Rabault on Monday evening.
Last week, the Liot opposition group tried to repeal the retirement age at 64 but their demand was declared unconstitutional, by House speaker Yaël Braun-Pivet, even before having been examined in public session.
"Fortunately [in this country] we respect the separation of powers and as the President of the National Assembly I am not under any pressure from the executive," Braun-Pivet told RTL radio on Tuesday.
"Everyone can say and think what they want. I believe that, for the past year, I have proven that I am an independent woman", she insisted, responding to accusations of not being impartial.
The presidential party is hoping to turn the page on the very unpopular reform which has weighed on the government's popularity and prompted rumours of another cabinet reshuffle.
France is one of the European countries with the lowest retirement age, but the systems are very different. Macron has justified the project saying it responds to financial constraints and the aging of the population.
The bill has been signed into law and is set to be introduced in September.
