French National Assembly passes pension reform bill
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French lower house of parliament, National Assembly, passes the revised package of pension reform bill on Wednesday afternoon, lifting the last legal hurdle in normal case for the highly unpopular reform.
With 336 ballots for and 233 against, the vote among deputies finally hammered the deal unless the opposition party takes action to file against it in Constitutional Court as they declared.
Senate, the upper house of parliament confirmed the final text of pension reform on Tuesday, with 177 votes versus 151 against.
The most controversial reform plans to prolong French peoople's minimum legal retirement age from current 60 to 62 in 2018 and extend the full pension age regardless contribution period from 65 to 67.
Opposition powers claimed the reform unfair to people who starts work at an early age, thus launched massive and fierce protesting strikes and demonstration on streets across the country for nearly two months.
The government is eager to put an end of the reform by the end of the month and insisting it's the only way to prevent the state from bankruptcy under the huge burden of pension deficit.
According to French state pension council, the annual pension deficit is to reach 32 billion euros (44 billion U.S. dollars) in 2010, then 42.3 billion euros (58.3 billion dollars) in 2018.
However, the opposition left-wing and trade unions are not prepared to give up the fight as further strikes and nationwide campaign are expected Thursday.
Not long ago in French history when President Jacques Chirac was pushing forward a youth labor law, overwhelming public protest made the government abandon to implement the law after it was adopted by both parliaments.
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