PARIS, FRANCE – JANUARY 19: People gather to display against pension reform in Paris, France on January 19, 2023. Staff, employees, and students hold a strike against French President’s plan to lift the legal retirement age from 62 to 64. (Photo by Julien Mattia/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
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The French Senate on Saturday night adopted President Emmanuel Macron’s unpopular pension reform plan within the wake of a seventh day of demonstrations that weren’t as large as authorities had expected.
100 and ninety-five members of the upper house of the French Parliament voted for the text, whose key measure is raising the retirement age by two years to 64, while 112 voted against.
The protests – and rolling strikes which have affected refineries, public transport and garbage collections – aimed to pressure the federal government to withdraw the pension plan, which it said is important to make sure the pension system doesn’t run out of cash.
“After tons of of hours of discussions, the Senate adopted the pension reform plan. It’s a key step to make a reform occur that may guarantee the long run of our pension system,” Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne wrote on Twitter.
She added she was “totally committed to make sure the text will probably be definitively adopted in the approaching days”.
Now that the Senate has adopted the bill, it’ll 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 each chambers is prone to happen on Thursday, however the end result of that also seems uncertain within the lower chamber, the National Assembly, where Macron’s party needs allies’ votes for a majority.
If the federal government fears it won’t have enough votes within the lower house, it remains to be possible for it to push the text through and not using a parliamentary vote, via a so-called 49:3 procedure.
An extra day of nationwide strikes and protests was planned for Wednesday.
Fewer than expected at Saturday’s marches
In line with figures from the inside ministry, 368,000 demonstrators marched through various cities on Saturday. Authorities had expected as much as 1 million people to participate.
As with the previous protests, Saturday’s events were freed from any major scuffles with the police.
On Tuesday, 1.28 million people took to the streets, the very best turnout for the reason that start of the protest movement, based on government figures.
In a joint statement, the French unions, maintaining a rare show of unity for the reason that protest movement was launched at the top of January, called on the federal government to arrange a “residents’ consultation” as soon as possible.
The unions plan to maintain up pressure “and to maintain on proving that the overwhelming majority of the population stays determined to say no to the proposed bill,” they said.
Opinion polls show a majority of voters oppose Macron’s plan, while a slim majority supports the strike actions.
Lower power supply as a result of strikes
“A number of things can still occur next week,” Marylise Leon, deputy secretary general of the CFDT union, the country’s largest, told Franceinfo radio. “Will the text be voted within the National Assembly? Now we have to rally. It’s now or never.”
A spokesperson for TotalEnergies said that strikes proceed within the oil major’s French refineries and depots, while public railway operator SNCF said national and regional services would remain heavily disrupted over the weekend.
In Paris, garbage continues to pile up on the streets, with residents seeing a growing presence of rats, based on local media.
National power production in France was reduced by 7.1 gigawatts (GW), or 14%, at nuclear, thermal and hydropower plants on Saturday as a result of the strikes, a CGT union spokesperson told Reuters.
Maintenance was also blocked at six French nuclear reactors, including Penly 1, the spokesperson said.
