France President Emmanuel Macron’s government ha survived the first of two motions of no confidence after attempting to push through plans to raise the country’s pension age.
Violent protests erupted in Paris on Friday after the government bypassed the lower house with unpopular proposals to raise the country’s retirement age by two years to 64.
Centrist MPs and those from the far-right National Rally had both tabled motions of no confidence in the government. The second is expected this evening.
The centrist group’s vote did not succeed and a less well-supported motion is still scheduled.
The vote needs a majority of the country’s 577 lawmakers to succeed – requiring an alliance that would need to span from the hard left to the far right.
It comes after protesters clashed with police on the streets of Paris on Friday, with officers making dozens of arrests during the unrest at Place de la Concorde.
Protests also occurred in other French cities, including Bordeaux, Toulon and Strasbourg.
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Protesters on a motorway near the western city of Rennes scuffled with police on Monday as they put up burning barricades to block traffic.
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Christine Lassalle, a member of FO, one of France’s main unions, said: “The real violence is not in the street, it’s in the reform.”
