Macron một mình đối mặt với nước Pháp giận dữ

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"We have a president who makes use of a permanent coup d'état." That was the verdict of Olivier Faure, the leader of the French Socialist Party, after President Emmanuel Macron rammed through a bill raising the retirement age in France to 64 from 62 without a full parliamentary vote this past week.

In fact, Mr. Macron's use of the "nuclear option," as the France 24 TV network described it, was entirely legal under the French Constitution, crafted in 1958 for Charles de Gaulle and reflecting the general's strong view that power should be centered in the president's office, not among feuding lawmakers.

But legality is one thing and legitimacy (tính chính danh) another. Mr. Macron may see his decision as necessary to cement his legacy as the leader who left France prepared to face the rest of the 21st century. But to many French people it looked like presidential diktat, a blot on his reputation and a blow to French democracy.

Parliament has responded with two motions of no confidence (bất tín nhiệm) in Mr. Macron's government. They are unlikely to be upheld when the lawmakers vote on them next week because of political divisions in the opposition, but are the expression of a deep anger.

...“He has managed to antagonize everyone by occupying the whole of the center,” said Jacques Rupnik, a political scientist. “Macron’s attitude seems to be: After me, the deluge (sau ta là hồng thủy).”

This isolation was evident as two months of protests and strikes that left Paris strewn with garbage culminated (lên tới đỉnh cao) on Thursday in the sudden panic of a government that had believed the pension vote was a slam dunk (điều đáng tin cậy, chắc chắn). Suddenly, the emperor’s doubts were exposed.