France in Political Crisis as Government Faces No-Confidence Vote
SputnikNews.com
11.05.2016
France is in the midst of its worst political crisis in decades with the country’s beleaguered Socialist government to face a no-confidence vote on Thursday after it bypassed parliament to ram through controversial labor reforms.
The announcement that the labor bill would be pushed through the lower house without a vote triggered widespread protests against the government, with police firing tear gas and rubber pellets at demonstrators, who have since called for further protests.
Protesters described the move as “an insult to the people of this country” and the labor bill as an “unprecedented setback for workers’ rights in France, a return to the 19th century.”
No-Confidence Vote
The government resorted to the rare measure of ruling by decree following concerns internal opposition from Socialist dissidents would defeat the bill, while it did so using a controversial Article in the French constitution that has been used less than 90 times since its inception in 1958.
The act led two opposition parties to file a no-confidence vote, scheduled for Thursday.
While the opposition parties hold only 226 of the 288 seats needed to topple Francois Hollande’s government, there are worries that an upset vote could trigger new elections, after Christian Paul, the leader of the Socialists rebel group, was hoping to join forces with Green MPs and create a no-confidence motion “of the left”.
The Rest…HERE
