French Senate approves pensions reform as protests appear to lose steam
FirstpostSenators passed the reforms by 195 votes to 112, bringing the package another step closer to becoming law Paris, France: France’s Senate voted late Saturday to approve a deeply unpopular reform to the country’s pension system, hours after demonstrators took to the streets to oppose the cornerstone policy of President Emmanuel Macron’s second term in office. “An important step was taken this evening with a broad vote on the pension reform text in the Senate,” Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne told AFP after the vote, adding that she believed the government had a parliamentary majority to get the reforms passed into law. “I’m here to fight for my colleagues and for our young people,” said Claude Jeanvoine, 63, a retired train driver demonstrating in Strasbourg, in eastern France. “People shouldn’t let the government get away with this, this is about the future of their children and grandchildren,” he told AFP.