The pension reform promoted by Macron voted in the Senate

The unpopular pension reform promoted by the liberal president Emmanuel Macron in France it passed to the Senate, at the end of Friday this mandate to the deputies to decide in a context of growing tension.

After midnight, the President of the Assembly (lower house), Yael Braun-Pivetput an end to the examination of the text, which was not voted on, before giving way to the debate on a motion of censure presented by the far right, which has no chance of thriving.

The plenary session of the Senate will debate the March 2 the proposal to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 by 2030 in France, which since its presentation in January has caused a wave of mass protests.

Two out of three French people oppose it, according to polls, and on January 31, the largest demonstration against social reform in three decades took place. The unions seek to increase the pressure from March 7, with renewable strikes.

Opponents accuse an unfair project that would harm the working classes. The government recommends raising one of the lowest retirement ages in Europe in order to avoid a deficit in the pension fund.

While it was almost certain that there would be no vote in the Assembly, the unions have increased the pressure in recent days on the left opposition so that at least the article linked to the delay of age can be debated.

But in vain. The game France rebellious (LFI, radical left) maintained most of its thousands of amendments, which prevented it from reaching this point, in a context of limited time due to the controversial procedure chosen by the government.

If by March 26 the two chambers do not decide on the text, the procedure used would allow the government to still implement the reform, even if it risks increasing social discontent.

Meanwhile, the unions continue to prepare for the general strike day of March 7which is intended to be broader than the five days of demonstrations carried out since January 19.

The CGT union today announced a strike for that day in the chemicals industry, which includes the key sector of refineries.

In addition to raising the minimum retirement age to 64, the reform aims to bring forward to 2027 the increase by one year (from 42 to 43) of the contribution period necessary to benefit from a full pensionnow planned for 2035.

The government argues that without these changes the pension system will generate a growing deficit that will reach 12,500 million euros by 2030, while the left doubts these figures and proposes that they should be assess the great fortunes and profits of large corporations to finance this hole.

The reform is directly opposed by the left (LFI, socialists, communists and ecologists) and the extreme right. For this reason, the government, which does not have a majority in Parliament, needs the support of the only party that remains as a possible support: the conservative Los Republicanos.

France lived yesterday its fifth day of protests against pension reform at the call of the unions, with a mobilization in withdrawal while waiting for the strike of March 7th.

The follow-up was less than that of Saturday’s march. Pending official global data, the CGT union claimed 1.3 million protesters in France and 300,000 in Paris (37,000, according to police).

“The day is already a success (…) The discontent, determination and pugnacity are intact”, rather declared Laurent Berger, of the CFDT union, who demonstrated alongside the rest of the union officials in Albi (south).

(With information from EFE and AFP)

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