The French Senate voted in first reading in favor of the government’s controversial pension reform. 195 senators voted for the bill on Sunday night, 112 rejected the bill and 37 abstained. Even if the vote in the heated dispute over the reform is a success for France’s central government, the project is not over. On Saturday, protests broke out again against the plans.
The government under President Emmanuel Macron wants to gradually increase the retirement age from 62 to 64 years. In addition, the number of payment years required for a full pension must increase more rapidly.
Every month the minimum pension is increased to approximately 1200 euros
The retirement age is currently 62 years. In fact, retirement starts later on average: those who have not continued to pay long enough to be entitled to a full salary continue to work longer. At age 67, there will then be pension with no deductions, regardless of how long it has been paid – that’s what the government wants to keep. She wants to increase the monthly minimum pension to around 1,200 euros.
The government is speeding up the reform through parliament. The text was therefore passed to the Senate without a first reading vote on the entire reform in the National Assembly. A committee of MPs and senators will meet on Wednesday to find a compromise between the National Assembly and Senate. Both chambers of parliament must then agree.
The center government does not have an absolute majority in the National Assembly. She hopes for the votes of the conservative Républicains for the reform. While conservatives in the Senate now agreed, the faction in the lower house was recently divided. There is therefore speculation whether the government will resort to a special article in the constitution and eventually pass the law without a vote by the National Assembly.
368,000 protesters at rallies
Hundreds of thousands of people across the country once again protested against the pension reform on Saturday. There were larger gatherings in Paris, Nice and Toulouse. The Interior Ministry estimated the number of protesters at 368,000. Trade unions, on the other hand, had counted on a million people. On Tuesday, 1.28 million people demonstrated. The unions called for further demonstrations and strikes on Wednesday.
Source: Krone
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