Reuters: French Senate approves protested pension reform

The French Senate passed a pension reform plan on Saturday amid protests against the bill that have been going on for the seventh day in a row. transmits Reuters. For the document, which will increase the retirement age of the French by two years to 64 years, 195 deputies of the upper house of parliament voted, 112 people opposed.

Demonstrations against the pension reform proposed by President Emmanuel Macron, as the agency notes, were not as large-scale as the authorities expected. Protests and strikes affected oil refineries, public transport and garbage collection, protesters thus calling on the government to withdraw the pension plan.

“After hundreds of hours of deliberation, the Senate passed the pension reform plan. This is a key step towards reform that guarantees the future of our pension system,” Prime Minister Elisabeth Bourne tweeted.

According to Reuters, the bill is to be considered by a committee of legislators in the lower and upper houses on Wednesday, and the final vote on pension reform is scheduled for Thursday, March 16.

According to the government, the maximum number of demonstrators – 1.28 million people – took to the streets on March 7. Trade unions in a joint French statement urged the government to organize consultations with citizens as soon as possible.

January 10, French Prime Minister Elisabeth Born introduced preliminary plan for pension reform. From September 1, 2023, the country proposes to raise the retirement age by three months a year to bring it to 64 years by 2030. It is proposed to limit the length of service to 43 years, persons with incomplete experience are proposed to retire at 67 by the end of reforms. The need for such measures was justified by the reduction in the number of actively working taxpayers providing for pensioners and the growth of the budget deficit.

The first mass actions took place on January 19, the number of protesters in Paris amounted to 400,000 people. At the same time, as reported by the French Interior Ministry, 80,000 people participated in protests against the pension reform in the capital. According to their estimates, on January 19, a total of 1.12 million people took to the streets of French cities. January 31 at a protest against pension reform in Paris came out about 500,000 people, Le Parisien reported, citing data from the CGT (General Confederation of Labour) trade union.