FRANCE’S NATIONAL Assembly approved president Nicolas Sarkozy’s contentious pension reform Bill yesterday after an acrimonious debate in the lower house.
The draft law, adopted by 329 votes to 233, raises the minimum retirement age from 60 to 62. It will next be debated by the Senate.
Huge street protests against the measures took place across France last week, and trade unions have vowed to intensify their opposition with a new wave of strikes and demonstrations later this month. Several thousand people marched to the National Assembly in Paris yesterday to demand the Bill’s withdrawal.
The vote followed an overnight debate that ended in acrimony. Socialist members had attempted to prevent the vote from taking place by prolonging the debate, but speaker Bernard Accoyer interrupted the process to allow the vote to take place, prompting opposition calls for his resignation.
The government argues that, without the reform, the shortfall in the state pension fund would reach €50 billion annually by 2020. But the opposition believes the proposals are unfair and place too high a burden on low- and middle-income earners.
“This is one of the most important reforms of this parliament and presidency,” said Jean-François Copé, who leads deputies from Mr Sarkozy’s UMP in the assembly. “It’s about preserving the pension system for our children.” Mr Sarkozy told senators from his party this week that there could still be room for amendments to the final text, although not its core proposal on the retirement age.
“The battle is not lost,” said Ségolène Royal, the Socialist who lost to Mr Sarkozy in the 2007 election. “The response has to be very, very strong. It is an unjust . . . reform.”
Opinion polls suggest a majority of French voters are against raising the retirement age but that most are resigned to the change.