FRENCH Prime Minister Manuel Valls rode out a vote of no confidence in the National Assembly yesterday, triggered after his government forced through an austerity Bill without a vote.

Article 49.3 of the French constitution lets the government skip a parliamentary vote on the law but exposes it to a vote of censure.

Communists and rightwingers decried the use of the undemocratic power, but couldn’t pull together enough MPs to topple the government despite grumbling among the ruling Socialist Party.

The French Communist Party said Mr Valls’s use of Article 49.3 showed the deep opposition to austerity, with him unwilling to see the defections that would accompany a vote.

The Bill, known as the Macron law after its drafter Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron, is the French government’s response to demands for austerity from the European Union.

It will let bosses sack workers more easily, deregulate the notary and legal professions and extend Sunday trading, among other things.

It follows a massive handout to private firms in the form of a €40 billion (£30bn) business tax cut.

The Bill and tax cut make up Socialist Party President Francois Hollande’s bid to reduce the country’s 10 per cent unemployment rate.

But similar measures forced by the EU and European Central Bank on debt-saddled southern European nations including Greece, Spain and Portugal have savaged their economies and sent unemployment rates soaring.

Almost one in four people are out of work in Spain, compared with one in 10 in France and one in 20 Germany, which has some of the strongest employment protections in Europe.

international@peoples-press.com