So last page I was talking about the controversial law on labor that the French socialist government is trying to pass. Pressure has been pretty consistent since then, no massive general strike but a lot of social resistance nonetheless : artists and entertainement technicians (which have a specific unemployment system) have occupied theaters and are threatening to sit out of the Avignon theater festival (one of the biggest in the world) for the second time in three years, national railways unions already announced another strike right before the Euro football competition and for a few weeks now a spontaneous nightly gathering at the Place de la République in Paris is occuring daily (with general assemblies, open sandboxes, etc...). Socialist MPs are still refusing to fall in line with certain parts of the law. Thus the government have decided to brute force the whole thing by using article 49-3 of the constitution.
The 49-3 article basically states that if used, a law must be passed as submitted (no amendments, no talks) with the only alternative being a vote of no-confidence by the National Assembly which amounts to dissolving the cabinet. It's a much (over)used tool since the Gaullist consititution has been in effect (Used 84 times since 1958 and never resulted in the no confidence vote) and as you can imagine unions and opponents are pretty pissed.
For the life of me I have a hard time understanding why the fuck a Socialist presidency would decide to die on that hill, especially as one if not the last major legislative effort before next year presidential election, but here we are.
