The fate of French President Emmanuel Macron’s government has come down to the wire as a vote of no confidence narrowly failed to pass the French parliament.
His government survived the vote on Monday evening, on a motion filed by MPs across the political spectrum furious that the president ordered the use of special constitutional powers to force through a deeply unpopular bill raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 without giving them a vote.
A total of 278 votes were counted against the government, nine short of the 287 needed to pass.
A second motion of no confidence was also voted on shortly after, which failed more comfortably with only 94 votes in favour.
The result means the pension reform becomes law.
Opening the parliamentary floor prior to the vote, centrist independent Charles de Courson accused the ruling party of opting for the "easy way" through a failed debate.
"You failed to convince, so you took the easy way out and avoided the inevitable outcome of voting," he said.
"You clearly distorted the spirit of the constitution."
Laure Lavalette, of the far-right faction, said the government had not sought to compromise.
"The use you have made of the constitution since the beginning proves that you will never seek to find the slightest compromise, not with the parliamentarians, nor with the trade unions, and even less with the French," she said.
Mathilde Panot, an MP from the left, criticised Macron's use of constitutional overrides as a lack of faith in democracy.
“If the president has decided that democracy no longer suffices, well then, we say here … that we will not give up and with all those who continue to fight in the country, we will use all means we have available to us to achieve the withdrawal [of the bill]."
While Macron is internationally the face of the pension reforms, it's his prime minister, Elizabeth Borne, whose position lay in the hands of her colleagues.
As Ms Borne took to the lectern to defend her position in the final speech before the vote, she was met with a chant of "49.3!" by those in opposition, quoting the section of the constitution used to bypass a vote on the pension reform.
Ms Borne said the opposition had filed thousands of amendments to prevent a vote on the pension bill and were now complaining that the government was rushing through the bill.
In bypassing the vote, the ruling government sparked more than 300 protests throughout France, fanning the flames of demonstrators that had been turning out for months.
Since January, trains, schools, public services and ports have been affected by strikes against the proposed reform.
Protesters have vowed to continue the fight.
An alliance of unions has called for a day of strikes across the country on Thursday, and opposition parties said they would take a challenge to the constitutional court.
