French lawmakers have voted to approve the suspension of President Emmanuel Macron’s controversial pension reform — a decision marking a major political setback for his administration and a significant victory for unions and protest movements that have opposed the measure for months.
The reform, which raised the minimum retirement age from 62 to 64, triggered some of the largest demonstrations in France in decades, with millions of workers, students, and public sector employees taking to the streets since its introduction.
The National Assembly’s decision to suspend the reform followed growing public frustration, months of strikes, and a series of clashes between police and protesters in major cities including Paris, Marseille, and Lyon.
00:00So we are going to put article 45 bis, which is the subject of a public vote, to the vote.
00:08I would ask you all to please return to your seats.
00:15The vote is open.
00:22The vote is closed.
00:23Voters were 505, 401, Majority 2011 in favor, 255 against, 146.
00:35The National Assembly has adopted it.
00:40I suggest we take a short 10-minute break and we will resume at 40, therefore for the National Rally.
00:47Madam President Marine Le Pen, I assure you that we will not go back to the voters.
00:54Renaissance is against the suspension, they will vote for it.
00:57LFI is for it, they will vote against it.
01:00The Communists are for it, they will vote against it or perhaps abstain.
01:04L is against it, they will vote for it.
01:07This is what debases politics.
01:10This is what the National Rally refuses.
01:14So, dear colleagues, we will perhaps be the only ones who are consistent.
01:18We are going to vote to suspend the socially unjust and economically ineffective border reform pending its repeal.
01:30Yes, thank you, Madam Chair.
01:32Under Article 100 on the proper conduct of our debates, Ms. Rousseau.
01:36Suspending the pension reform will of course allow 3.5 million women and men who we are thinking of to retire three months earlier.
01:45And that counts, it is serious when today too many French people need to slow down their lives because their bodies and minds are tired.
01:57Finally, what the socialists want to negotiate by suspending this single reform is to know what project we want for our aging population.
02:07Either we accept massively precarious and arduous jobs and compensate by increasing the retirement age, and that is not our choice.
02:22The socialist group and related parties will vote to suspend the pension reform and give the prospect of a new social contract to the French people.
02:31Common happiness will come from there.
02:33The floor is now given to Madam Chair Matilda Pannot for the La France Insoumise Group.
02:40We will vote against the postponement of retirement to 64 because we do not accept its principle.
02:47We do not accept that 15,000 additional people die each year before seeing a single day of their retirement.
02:54We do not accept that women are the big losers when they are already wondering how they will survive until 67 with the reduction.
03:03Above all, we do not accept that this postponement is made at the cost of cutting pensioners and the sick with your social security budget.
03:09All this to pave the way for the points-based pension, which was already defeated by popular protests in 2020, as well as for the funded pension.
03:19The floor is now given to Mr. President Gabriel Atal for the Ensemble Pour La Republique Group.
03:33We supported it, we defended it with all our strength, and yet today my group will abstain.
03:40It is obviously not with a light heart, but it is with lucidity.
03:44Clear-sightedness first of all about how we got here.
03:50If the suspension or repeal of this reform was requested, it is because some claimed that it had been adopted under undemocratic conditions.
03:59And if it was adopted by 493, it is because some who had previously defended it during the presidential election chose to oppose it at the time and today seem to be defending it.
04:08We are clear about the fact that the brutal and unjust reform of 2023 has led to huge mobilizations.
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