World News | French Senate passes pension bill despite street protests

PARIS, March 12 (AP) — A controversial bill raising France’s retirement age from 62 to 64 passed the Senate amid strikes, protests and a mountain of uncollected garbage. measure.

French Prime Minister Elisabeth Born said on Twitter late Saturday night that she was looking forward to the final passage of the bill, hailing a “decisive step towards a reform that secures our future retirement system”.

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But the legislation must now navigate thorny political terrain with multiple potential outcomes.

It first heads to a committee of seven senators and seven Commons lawmakers to find a compromise between the two chambers’ version of the text on Wednesday – when unions plan an eighth round of nationwide protest marches.

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President Emmanuel Macron is undeterred by the mountains of uncollected rubbish piling up in Paris and other cities amid garbage workers’ strikes against the bill and cutbacks in services and supplies in other sectors such as transport and energy.

Macron has rejected the union’s request to meet him, with Philippe Martinez, the leader of the leftist CGT union, saying it amounted to a “finger-finger”.

The government did not respond to union demands for a “citizens consultation” on the legislation, which was made on Saturday after a new day of marches, which drew crowds compared with protest marches four days earlier much less.

Senate President Gerard Larcher expressed pride in the work of his colleagues after the vote — a day before the deadline — saying the institution, controlled by the conservative right, made a difference “whether we How you feel, there is only one goal, the good of the country and the good of the French people.”

The unions insist that the French people are voting against the reforms in the streets and through strikes, which are continuing, albeit at a reduced rate in some sectors.

The government wants to avoid using special constitutional powers to force parliament to pass the bill without a vote. Parliamentary approval would give the pension scheme largely legitimacy.

But a variety of circumstances existed before the reform became law, making its path uncertain.

If the mixed committee agrees on Wednesday, the pension reform plan will go to a final vote the next day in the Senate and the lower house of the National Assembly.

If there is no agreement, the bill is likely to return to the National Assembly for more debate and a final vote before possibly returning to the Senate. Prime Minister Born is optimistic that the measure will “finally be passed in the next few days”. (Associated Press)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)