French Senate adopts Macron's unpopular pension reform

The French Senate yesterday adopted President Emmanuel Macron's unpopular pension reform plan, with 195 votes for and 112 votes against, a bill whose key measure is raising the retirement age by two years to 64.

The upper house of the French Parliament voted on the text in the wake of a seventh day of nationwide demonstrations against the plan. A majority of voters oppose the text, according to opinion polls.

Now that the Senate has adopted the bill, it will be reviewed by a joint committee of lower and upper house lawmakers, probably on Wednesday.

If the committee agrees on a text, a final vote in both chambers is likely to take place on Thursday, but the outcome of that still seems uncertain in the lower chamber, the National Assembly, where Macron's party needs allies' votes for a majority.

If the government fears it won't have enough votes in the lower house, it is still possible for it to push the text through without a parliamentary vote, via a so-called 49:3 procedure.

An additional day of nationwide strikes and protests was planned for Wednesday.

- Reuters