The pension reform makes its way through the upper house of parliament. On Saturday night, two days before a day of national mobilization, article 1 of the bill was approved in the Senate, regarding the disappearance of part of the “special regimes.”
By 233 votes in favor and 99 against, article 1 of the Social Security financing reform bill was approved. Labor Minister Olivier Dussopt commented on Twitter: “Article 1 voted. Gradual extinction of special regimes.”
Gradual disappearance of the main regimes
The senators voted in favor of the article after a day of discussions while this text had created heated debates for four days in the National Assembly.
It provides for the phasing out of the main special pension schemes for the electricity and gas industries (IEG), the RATP, notaries and notary employees, the Banque de France and members of the EESC (Economic, Social and Environmental Council) .
EDF agents at nuclear power plants, opposed to phasing out so-called “special” regimes, went on a renewables strike on Friday.
This strike has caused since Friday a drop in the electricity production capacity of the nuclear park to about 4 gigawatts (GW), according to data available on the EDF website, or the equivalent of four reactors.
The unions press
The unions unanimously call for a new day of mobilization on March 7 and threaten to put France on hold to prevent the adoption of the reform.
The general secretary of the CGT, Philippe Martínez, predicted in the Sunday newspaper an extension of the challenge.
“For us, it is not about giving up, even if Macron is stubborn. A law, even passed, does not necessarily apply,” the union leader told the JDD.
Asked about the case at a press conference on Saturday in Kinshasa, when he met his counterpart Félix Tshisekedi in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the
President Emmanuel Macron responded: “I have already made several comments on this pension reform that was part of my presidential commitment. I am not going here (…) to make new comments on the comments.”
Source: BFM TV
