Macron's government easily survives censure vote in Parliament

PARIS, Dec 13 (KUNA) -- The government of French President Emmanuel Macron, led by Prime Minister Philippe Edouard, late Thursday easily survived a "no-confidence" vote brought by several leftist groups in the National Assembly.
The vote follows weeks of social unrest and often-violent protest across France, protests which have led to the deaths of five people in accident and incidents.
The protests were initially against a hike in fuel taxes but expanded rapidly to other complaints and demands, including higher spending power.
The vote in Parliament against the government only got 70 supporters Thursday and was far from the 289 votes needed to have a majority in the 577-member parliament.
Already last Monday, Macron took several steps to help ease the plight of France's poorer sectors.
These included a hike of 100 Euros (USD 114) in the minimum wage of Euros 1,380 gross per month. He also abandoned taxes on the poorer pensioners and he adopted several measures on other taxes and pushed for bonuses in other areas.
Other parties in the National Assembly, mainly the more powerful Conservative parliamentarians, have not excluded also initiating a censure vote at a later stage, but Macron's "Republic on the March (LREM)" party have a solid majority and it is unlikely another vote of "no-confidence" would pass, either. (end) jk.ibi