"Parliamentary nuclear button", "declaration of impotence", "hard blow to the leadership" of Emmanuel Macron: the international and French press unanimously castigates, Friday, March 17, the use of article 49.3 to pass the pension reform, and points the finger at Emmanuel Macron for the political and social crisis that threatens.

In the United States, Politico considers that this decision "deals a blow to the leadership" of the French president, while the New York Times stresses that "the conflict over pensions reveals a weakened and more isolated Macron", recalling that it is on the Place de la Concorde, where opponents of the reform met after the announcement of the use of 49.3 by Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne. that Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette were beheaded during the French Revolution.

The Swiss daily Le Temps explains that "the parliamentary nuclear button" that constitutes 49.3 "is perceived as democratic violence" and that it "will probably add fuel to the fire of the social movement".

"The Republic blocked", headlines Die Zeit, according to which "there are reforms from which a government never recovers". "Trust in the president and Parliament, already at half-mast, suffered a further blow on Thursday. Emmanuel Macron is primarily responsible," said the German weekly.

The use of 49.3 symbolizes "the failure of politics and a deep institutional crisis," said El Pais, who believes that the French head of state made Thursday "a declaration of impotence". "Emmanuel Macron, whose popularity is at an all-time low, always questioned for his haughty character and disconnected from the street, has entered the same phase as his predecessors Alain Juppé, in 1995, and Nicolas Sarkozy, in 2010, when they also reformed pensions," the Spanish daily continues.

"Is Emmanuel Macron's five-year term already over?"

The French press is also very critical. "What an admission of weakness!" exclaims Jean-Marcel Bouguereau in the Republic of the Pyrenees. "The government does not have an absolute majority to pass the flagship reform of the five-year term," he continues, believing that "it is a huge political crisis that is coming."

"Zero political gain, major social cost. The failure of a tactic signs, moreover, the crying loneliness of the president," writes Florence Chédotal in La Montagne. "Now, how do we regain control when the mother of reforms ends like this?" she asks, referring to a "disastrous sequence where the fog thickens".

"Emmanuel Macron has himself stuck in a political impasse," says Patrick Jankielewicz in La Voix du Nord. "If we had to save the pension reform, there was only one way to do it: we had to go to the vote. It was of course running the risk of being beaten, but in politics, it is sometimes better to fall with honors than to pass in force and without glory at the risk of throwing gasoline on the social fire.

"One question already dominates all the others after this historic day: eleven months after its beginning, is Emmanuel Macron's five-year term already over?" asks Maurice Bontinck in La Charente Libre, for whom the use of 49.3 "resonates as an admission of weakness of what should be called today 'the presidential minority'".

"The taste of failure", headlines Yves Thréard in Le Figaro, who also believes that "the executive is more than ever weakened".

'Regime crisis'

Same observation for Christophe Lucet, in Sud-Ouest, for whom "it is a weakened tandem that will have to manage the after". "The trade union and popular anger that intensified yesterday, after the abortive session at the Palais Bourbon, is full of threats. With, in the worst case, a prolonged blockade of the country. And if not, a rancour that will find other reasons to express itself, curbing the government's will to reform," warns the editorialist.

The same concern is expressed for Libération, whose editorial by Dov Alfon believes that "it is in instability that (the) ill-gotten pension reform pushes France, its democracy and its workers." "The president could save the furniture by announcing that the law will be repealed after this undemocratic passage. But it's not his kind to listen to the French," he said.

"Is there still a pilot in the Elysian plane, responsible and feet on the ground, fully aware of the chaos he is installing in his own country?" asks Olivier Biscay of Midi Libre. "Emmanuel Macron wanted to make history, he has just won the pompom of the pants," he castigates.

"Crisis of regime", headlines Maud Vergnol in L'Humanité. "With this new recourse to 49.3, the divorce between our institutions and the people is consummated, culminating in a creeping crisis of delegitimization of political power, opening a royal road to authoritarian temptations. The arsonist of the Elysée is the only one responsible for this situation," she said.

With AFP

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