Emmanuel Macron’s tricky second term

faced six parliamentary attempts to topple his government in a fortnight during his first presidential term, it would have felt like a political insurrection. Yet this autumn, six months after the French president was re-elected and then lost his parliamentary majority, this is what has just happened. Of the six no-confidence motions, instigated by opposition parties between October 19th and November 2nd, none secured the 289 votes needed for the government to fall. But they point to the trouble Mr Macron is facing , as he tries to gain traction with policymaking in his second term.The no-confidence votes were prompted by the government’s use of an emergency provision known as 49-3 (the number of the relevant article in the constitution). Since late October Elisabeth Borne, Mr Macron’s prime minister, has used this four times. Designed to avoid legislative deadlock, it enables the government to pass a law without the need for a parliamentary vote—so long as it wins any subsequent no-confidence motion. Only one of the six votes held so far has come close. On October 24th Marine Le Pen’s hard-right National Rally () decided at the last minute to side with its arch-opponents, Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s hard-left alliance, . The combined effort was just 50 votes short of bringing down the government.