Vandals attack French politician’s office over pension dispute
Protesters vandalized the Nice office of the president of the Les Républicains party in an apparent threat to have his right-wing party vote to block President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform
PARIS — Protesters vandalized the Nice office of the president of the Les Républicains party in an apparent threat to have his right-wing party vote to block President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform.
Eric Ciotti tweeted a photo of his office in the French Riviera town with shattered windows after a cobblestone was thrown there on Sunday night. The vandals also scribbled the words “the motion or the stone” – in reference to the motions of censure against the pension reform which will be voted on Monday at the National Assembly in Paris.
Amid weeks of mass protests against Macron’s plan to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64, Macron last week ordered Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne to invoke a special constitutional power to circumvent a vote in the lower house of parliament. In response, lawmakers at both ends of the political spectrum filed no-confidence motions against his cabinet on Friday.
Ciotti had announced that his party would vote for neither of the two no-confidence motions, meaning there would not be enough votes to stop the law.
Reacting to the vandals, Ciotti tweeted: “I will never give in to the new disciples of terror”.
Passing a no-confidence motion will be difficult – none have succeeded since 1962, and Macron’s centrist alliance still holds the most seats in the National Assembly. A minority of conservatives may stray from the Republican Party line, but it remains to be seen whether they are ready to bring down the Macron government.
