Opposition lawmakers in the French National Assembly withdrew 1,000 of the 20,000 amendments they had introduced to the government’s proposed pension reform, in order to speed up the process and get to the heart of the debate by Friday’s deadline.
Overnight the left-green Nupes coalition announced it was withdrawing 1,000 amendments to speed up debate on article 2 of the bill, which would put in place a ‘senior index’, requiring companies to report how many older people they employ.
Around 10pm on Monday, the head of the Socialist group in Parliament, Boris Vallaud, took the floor with France Unbowed MPs Manuel Bompard and François Ruffin to announce that the left would "withdraw a thousand amendments, which will allow us to move on to the rest".
The rest includes article 7 of the legislation, which would raise the minimum retirement age from 62 to 64 years old – the key measure in the bill, which has sparked the most opposition.
The chamber's 577 lawmakers have been debating since 6 February, and have until Friday, midnight, to vote on the whole bill before it is sent automatically to the Senate, regardless of how much has been debated.
Another 14,000 amendments remain on the entirety of the text.
After the left's announcement, Laure Lavalette, the spokesperson for the far-right National Rally group in parliament took the floor and called on the left to "withdraw 10,000 amendments" in order to get to "the nuclear heart" of the bill, which is article 7.
Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire has said the amendments are an "obstruction" and has called the behaviour of the hard-left France Unbowed lawmakers an "obstacle to democratic debate".
Unions are calling for the opposition to speed things up in the National Assembly.
"We would like there to be a vote on article 7,” said Philippe Martinez, head of the CGT union, on BFM television, insisting that each lawmaker must be able to have a say on the increase in the minimum retirement age.
A fifth strike and protest day has been called for Thursday, with unions warning they want to shut down the country on 7 March, the day after the end of the winter school holidays.
(with AFP)
