The French Senate, dominated by the right, approved on Wednesday night, after an intense procedural battle with the left, the key article of a pension reform project that delays the retirement age from 62 to 64 years.
The vote ended with 201 votes in favor and 115 against.
Just this Tuesday, 1.28 million protesters – according to the authorities, and 3.5 million – according to the CGT – took to the streets in France.
The protest seeks the government to withdraw its plan to push the retirement age from 62 to 64 by 2030 and to advance to 2027 the requirement to contribute 43 years (and not 42, as now) to collect a full pension.
After five massive peaceful demonstrations in January and February, the unions decided to intensify their struggle, faced with the refusal of the Macron government and Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne to back down.
The unions called new protests on Saturday and next week (probably Wednesday), but their fight was also present in the feminist march this Wednesday.
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According to the government plan, the legal retirement age will be raised progressively from 62 to 64 years at a rate of three months per year from the 1st. from September 2023 to 2030.
In addition, to obtain a full pension, without discount, the required contribution period will increase from 42 to 43 years by 2027, at a rate of one quarter per year.
France has experienced large protest mobilizations against the pension reform promoted by the liberal president Emmanuel Macron.
To enter into force, the initiative must still be agreed by the two chambers of Parliament, for which they have a deadline of March 26. In case of not reaching it, the government can apply its plan through an ordinance, something that has never happened.
The Macron government chose a controversial parliamentary procedure – a rectifying project of the Social Security financing law – which limited the examination time and facilitates the application of the plan. The two chambers of Parliament have until March 26 to adopt the same text. If they fail to speak, the government can implement its plan by ordinance thereafter, something that has never happened.
The Senate, controlled by the right-wing opposition in favor of the reform, had until this Sunday to vote on the entire reform. For its part, the term expired in the National Assembly (lower house), without actually doing so.
Next week, representatives of both chambers must meet to try to agree on a common text, on which deputies and senators should rule again or at least try, possibly on March 16.
AFP
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