PARIS (Reuters) – The Senate adopted late on Saturday evening the pension reform bill lowering the legal retirement age from 62 to 64, at the end of a new day of national mobilization, marked by a participation in decrease.

The project was voted by 195 votes for and 112 against, making a total of 307 votes cast.

This is “a decisive step to bring about a reform that will ensure the future of our pensions”, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said on Twitter.

The text was examined more quickly than expected after the use by the government of article 44 paragraph 3 of the Constitution.

This recourse makes it possible to speed up the parliamentary procedure and to have the elected representatives of the Upper House vote on the entire text, with only the amendments retained by the executive.

The Minister of Labor, Olivier Dussopt, had justified this initiative by what he describes as “systematic obstruction” of the left while the Senate, where the group Les Républicains (LR, right) is in the majority, had until Sunday midnight to examine the text.

Bruno Retailleau, the leader of the LR senators, gave up on Saturday presenting his controversial amendment – ​​which the government was opposed to – providing for the abolition of special pension schemes for all employees, and not only future recruits in the sectors concerned.

This decision had the effect of accelerating the examination of the text, by bringing down more than 300 amendments tabled by the left.

It is now up to a joint committee of seven deputies and seven senators to meet on Wednesday to try to agree on a common version of the bill and, if this is the case, it could be submitted to the final vote of the National Assembly and the Senate next Thursday.

LOW MOBILIZATION

Opponents of the pension reform marched on Saturday for a seventh day, which recorded the lowest participation since the start of the protest movement.

According to the CGT, the approximately 250 rallies and parades brought together more than a million people in France, including 300,000 in Paris.

The Ministry of the Interior, for its part, counted 368,000 demonstrators, including 48,000 in the capital.

The previous lowest dated February 16 with, according to the CGT, 1.3 million people gathered in the streets across the country and 440,000 according to the police.

The mobilization of March 7 had, on the contrary, been particularly followed in France with some 1.28 million demonstrators according to data from the ministry and 3.5 million for the inter-union.

The latter, which calls for a new day of strikes and demonstrations on March 15, asks the government to organize a citizen consultation “as soon as possible” on this reform.

The CGT denounced the “contempt of Emmanuel Macron” who refused Friday to receive the inter-union to “preserve” parliamentary time”.

The secretary general of the CGT called this end of non-receipt from the head of state a “brain of honor to the unions and the social movement”.

“If he is so sure of himself, the president only has to consult the people (by referendum). We will see the people’s response”, launched Philippe Martinez on Saturday in the Paris demonstration.

His CFDT counterpart, also present in the procession, considered the presidential decision contemptuous for workers who perform difficult jobs or who had sacrificed themselves during the confinement linked to the COVID-19 pandemic to carry out essential tasks.

“There is a legitimate parliamentary democracy but there is also a social democracy which must be taken into account. We will demonstrate on Wednesday, then we will decide what to do next,” said Laurent Berger. “I implore, I ask those who run this country to come out of this form of social movement denial.”

Faced with this anger that Emmanuel Macron said on Friday in his letter to the unions not to “underestimate”, the executive has chosen for the moment to camp on his position, that of a reform which he considers “indispensable” to ensure the financial balance of the pension scheme and, consequently, the future of the pay-as-you-go system.

“IF THAT’S WHAT THEY WANT…”

MP Sylvain Maillard, who will participate in the joint committee as vice-president of Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance group, said on Saturday on franceinfo convinced that the government would have a majority to have its text adopted both in the Assembly than in the Senate.

The unions do not intend to disarm, however, and warn against a radicalization of the protest movement against a “blind” government in the face of the strongest social mobilization for decades.

“The executive acts as if the demonstrations do not exist… We do not condone violence, ever. Now, of course, on the ground, the base says: “If that’s what they want, we will show them that we can be more determined than that”, declared Frédéric Souillot, the general secretary of Force Ouvrière, on RMC.

The unions are comforted by the support of a clear majority of French people for their mobilization, approved at 63% (-1 point in one week), according to an Elabe poll for BFMTV published on Saturday. They are less likely (54%) to approve of the blocking of sectors such as refineries, transport or waste collection.

Faced with the risk of hardening and while the strike seems to be marking time in certain sectors, in a context of high inflation, the deputy general secretary of the CFDT, Marylise Léon, once again expressed her union’s doubts about the advisability to declare a renewable strike.

“There is a principle of reality. To say renewable strike for ten days is to ask the impossible of certain workers”, she underlined, while refusing to say if the CFDT will continue to call for mobilization. if the pension reform is voted in Parliament.

(Written by Tangi Salaün and Laetitia Volga)

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