The French Senate voted this morning by a right-wing majority to postpone the minimum retirement age from 62 to 64, the key point of President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform.
After midnight, 201 senators voted in favor of Article 7 of the bill, which raises the retirement age by two years, while 115 opposed and 29 abstained.
The vote came at the end of a 15-hour parliamentary debate marathon on that article, with the left presenting hundreds of amendments to avoid debate and the right resorting to an exceptional means of overcoming them.
The Minister of Labour, Olivier Dussopt, was satisfied but cautious, aware that this partial evolution of his project is based on the support of the right, which will be essential for him to move forward in the conciliation phase between the two parliamentary chambers.
Dussopt viewed it as “a motion of responsibility from the Senate, which chose to follow the administration,” and expressed a desire that all articles could be discussed and approved before the deadline for processing in the Senate, midnight Sunday.
Besides this vote and the parliamentary process, which could end next week, the major obstacle for Macron is the street protests, organized by all trade unions, united in an unprecedented unity in France.
Last Tuesday, the sixth day of demonstrations was the largest since the movement began in January due to the number of demonstrators: 1.28 million according to the Interior Ministry, 3.5 million according to the CGT, the trade union federation. French.
More actions are scheduled for Saturday and Wednesday, with an emergency meeting requested with Emmanuel Macron demanding the withdrawal of the reform project.
Meanwhile, strikes continue in some sectors, notably public transport and energy.
In transport, today and Friday, 20% of flights are canceled at Charles de Gaulle airport and 30% at Orly, the second airport in Paris, as well as in Beauvais, Bordeaux, Lille, Lyon, Nantes, Marseille, Montpellier, Nice and Toulouse.
France is one of the countries in Europe where the retirement age is among the lowest and pension systems are not fully comparable. The government justified raising the retirement age to respond to the financial degradation of pension funds and the aging of the population.
Source: DN
