French government faces no confidence motion in Parliament

The French government of Socialist Prime Minister Manuel Valls faces later Thursday a "no confidence" motion in the parliament but is most likely to survive the vote put forward by the opposition parties and supported by some extreme left-wing deputies.
The Parliament has scheduled the vote for 17.00 local time and Valls has called for solidarity from his Socialist supporters and some defectors in order to gather a majority to defeat the "no confidence" motion tabled by the opposition conservatives in the UMP party.
The vote against Valls is also supported by centrists and the extreme "Left Front" party.
Earlier this week, Valls "engaged the responsibility of his government" to support a new finance bill put forward by Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron, which includes innovative measures to liberalise the economy, including authorisation for French employees to work 12 Sundays in the year, instead of five under current legislation.
Macron's law also intends to give greater flexibility in other areas of labour legislation, moves that have angered staunch Socialists who threatened to defect and vote against the law in regular parliamentary procedures. But under a "no confidence" procedure, defections could bring down the government and force early elections, a risk that most Socialist deputies are not prepared to take and will thus support Valls later Thursday.
The Prime Minister is using "Article 49.3 of the Constitution to force the Macron law to a confidence.