Emmanuel Macron’s government survives, but more trouble lies ahead

BY A WAFER-THIN margin of just nine votes, the French government survived a on March 20th, opening the way for its controversial pension reform to be written into law. The result in the National Assembly was far narrower than many had expected, and reflects a level of that is unlikely to dissipate. The immediate political crisis for President Emmanuel Macron may be over, but popular unrest could yet spread.Opposition parties needed 287 votes to dislodge Mr Macron’s minority centrist government. This would have annulled his legislation raising France’s minimum pension age from 62 years to 64. But a motion of no-confidence proposed by a cross-party alliance got just 278 votes. A second effort to topple the government, tabled by Marine Le Pen’s nationalist-populist National Rally, failed by a far wider margin.