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The French Senate adopted the controversial pension reform on Saturday night, after ten days of debates, by 195 votes against 112. This vote took place on the day that hundreds of thousands of people returned to the streets for another day of stoppage.
It was just before midnight on Saturday that the French Senate, dominated by the right, approved the controversial pension reform of President Emmanuel Macron. This maneuver was made possible by virtue of Article 44.3 of the Constitution, which the government used to limit the time for legislative debates.
This legislative victory was understood as an “important step” by the Prime Minister ANDLisabeth Borne, who says she is convinced that “there is a majority” in Parliament to adopt the reform.
A joint committee of seven deputies and seven senators is expected to meet to try to agree on a common version of the bill. If this is the case, the bill could be submitted to the final vote of the National Assembly and the Senate next Thursday.
Avoid recourse to Article 49.3 at all costs
However, the Prime Minister, ANDlisabeth Borne admits trying to avoid using 49.3, which allows a text to be adopted without a vote, but exposes the executive to the risk of a censure motion.
Contrary to the Senate, which is dominated by the right and there is greater cohesion among senators, the situation is different in the National Assembly. In the Palais Bourbon, the right, traditionally in favor of a postponement of the legal retirement age, is much more divided than in the Senate. According to an inside source, only half of the 61 representatives of the Republican party intend to vote in favor of the text, while about fifteen would be, and another ten would abstain.
A widely contested reform in the streets
Despite providing for measures to facilitate the hiring of people of an advanced age and a rise in the amount of pensions for mothers of families, it is the increase in the retirement age from 62 to 64 that is being the target of wide popular protest in the streets.
According to CGT data, around one million people demonstrated yesterday across the country. In Paris alone, it is estimated that there were 300,000 demonstrators, in what was the seventh consecutive weekly mobilization, called by the main French unions.
The Government argues that this increase is justified as a response to the aging of the population, but also to the financial degradation of pension funds, which could jeopardize their viability in the near future.