This Thursday, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne used 49.3 to push through the pension reform in the National Assembly. Since the beginning of the Fifth Republic, this is the 100th time that this lever has been activated. This decision did not go unnoticed and the opposition quickly expressed its dissatisfaction and its determination to oppose it. On the side of the unions, Laurent Berger announced “new mobilizations” against the bill. Marine Le Pen, she quickly announced that she will file a motion of censure against the government after the use of 49.3. The activation of this article arouses strong indignation and yet it is not the first time that the Prime Minister has used it since taking office.
As a reminder, according to the government website, article 49, paragraph 3, of the French Constitution provides that “the Prime Minister may, after deliberation by the Council of Ministers, engage the responsibility of the Government before the National Assembly on the vote of a finance or social security financing bill. In this case, this bill is considered adopted, unless a motion of censure, tabled within 24 hours, is voted under the conditions provided for in paragraph The Prime Minister may also use this procedure for another bill or bill per session.”
Elisabeth Borne, silver medal
Appointed Prime Minister by the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron on May 16, 2022, Elisabeth Borne quickly made use of article 49.3. On December 15, to have the finance bill for 2023 adopted definitively and without a vote, the Prime Minister used this weapon 10 times. If 49.3 has been activated so many times, this is explained by the fact that the government only has a relative majority in the National Assembly and is in a minority in the Senate. This poses a problem for passing bills. The article therefore makes it possible to circumvent this constraint.
This Thursday, when the government had announced that its will was not to go through a 49.3 but by a vote, Elisabeth Borne finally decided to activate the article, to the great surprise of the opposition. It is therefore the 11th time that the head of government has committed the controversial article. Since the beginning of the Fifth Republic, the Prime Minister is quite simply the second to have used the 49.3 the most, behind Michel Rocard.
Michel Rocard, number one by far
Under the presidency of François Mitterrand, Michel Rocard exercised the function of Prime Minister from 1988 to 1991. During his function, the politician activated article 49.3 on 28 occasions, for 13 different texts. By activating this lever, Michel Rocard enabled the adoption of the law creating the Higher Audiovisual Council (CSA), finance laws, the reform of the Régie Renault statute (1990), the hospital reform (1991) and the 1990-1993 military programming law.
If the socialist has had recourse to this weapon so many times, it is because he only had a relative majority in the Assembly. Faced with the large number of uses of 49.3, the opposition to the Michel Rocard government tabled five motions of censure, all of which were rejected.