French Senate adopts retirement reform

Paris, Mar 11 (Prensa Latina) The French Senate approved today in first reading the retirement reform promoted by the Government, a project that will continue its parliamentary path next week amid the rejection of unions and political forces.

March 11, 2023
21:02

With the support of the conservatives from the Los Republicanos (LR) party, dominant in the upper house, the ruling party achieved an important and long-awaited step late Saturday night, on a day that witnessed the seventh day of mass protests and strikes since on January 19 to demand the withdrawal of the initiative.

In the Luxembourg Palace, the reform that includes the extension of the legal retirement age from 62 to 64 years received the Yes of 195 senators and the No of 112.

The left denounced the use of resources by LR and the Government that accelerated the discussions in the chamber, marginalized a part of their amendments, limited the interventions and imposed a single vote on the project, also questioned for representing an increase in the contribution period and the elimination of special pension regimes.

Last month the text could not be voted on in the National Assembly, the instance that in France has the last word in the legislative sphere, due to the actions of the opposition, which presented around 20,000 amendments, the majority by La Francia Insumisa.

The retirement reform will be analyzed on March 15 in a mixed commission of seven senators and the same number of deputies, before returning to the Assembly on March 16.

Based on the established procedures, March 26 will be the deadline for the final vote on a project that generates the unanimous rejection of the unions, an atypical scenario in recent years.

This Saturday, hundreds of thousands of people returned to the streets against the text, and the Intersindical already announced that on Wednesday, the day the mixed commission will meet, it will hold a new day of mobilization.

The unions accuse President Emmanuel Macron of ignoring the majority rejection of the project in France, for which they requested an emergency meeting and a popular consultation on the reform.

According to the detractors of the text, the Government could resort to article 49.3 of the Constitution to adopt it without a parliamentary vote, a decision that they warned would be undemocratic.

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