On the 11th, people on the streets of Lyon, France continued to protest against the postponement of the retirement bill by the French Macron government.

(Associated Press)

[Central News Agency] The French Senate voted early tonight and passed the controversial pension reform bill with 195 votes in favor and 112 votes against, which would extend the mandatory retirement age from 62 to 64, a major victory for the government.

The seventh anti-year reform protest also took place today, but the number of participants hit a new low since January.

Following a chaotic and no-vote scrutiny in France's National Assembly, the Senate stepped up its debate on Sunday and voted on President Emmanuel Macron's unpopular pension reform bill late on, with 195 votes in favor and 112 against.

Winning this bureau means that the government has taken a big step towards the formal passage of the bill.

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The Senate was supposed to complete the review and vote on the evening of the 12th, but due to the high-speed operation of the French Senate’s ruling party and the right-wing Republican (LR) policy alliance, the article-by-article debate and bill voting were completed ahead of schedule.

Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne was also the first to congratulate, calling it a "decisive step" towards the goal.

Bruno Retailleau, chairman of the Senate Republicans, said in a caucus speech before the vote that he would be in favor of reform, but not Macron, and stressed that he wanted to "save" the French retirement system.

For Socialist MP Monique Lubin, "Today will always be a dark day for the French wage earners. This reform is an ideological one. You never support measures that will make labor better off".

Labor Minister Olivier Dussopt announced on the 10th that Article 44.3 of the Constitution would be used to speed up Senate review, that is, "Congress will conduct a single vote on all or part of the debated bills, and only need to include amendments proposed or passed by the government."

In other words, the opposition cannot control the discussion of the bill, nor can it allow its own amendments to be voted on. It can only be debated, which is commonly known as the "vote bloque".

The leftist camp was dissatisfied and protested against the government's "seizure of power" and "contempt"; the government condemned the leftists for using thousands of amendments and sub-amendments to paralyze censorship.

Former prime minister Francois Fillon also invoked the constitution in the Senate in 2010.

To expedite the review, Hotayu withdrew the proposed amendment this afternoon.

According to BFM Television (BFMTV), the Senate was running at high speed, with the speed of review accelerating from 30 an hour in the morning to nearly 100 an hour in the evening.

Political struggles are fierce, and street fights are also on the scene.

French trade unions held the seventh national anti-year reform demonstration today to protest against the annual reform bill.

According to data from the Ministry of the Interior, a total of 368,000 people took to the streets across the country today; the figure of the French Confederation of Trade Unions (CGT) was 1 million, the lowest number since the anti-year reform social movement on January 19.

But Laurent Berger, general secretary of the French Democratic Trade Union Confederation (CFDT), told the media: "Maybe there are fewer people on the street, but there is more anger inside."

Today's protests erupted into more clashes.

At the beginning of the Paris parade, demonstrators threw various objects at the police, burned trash cans, smashed shop windows, etc.; the parade was also temporarily suspended in the Bastille Square, so that the police could flank the group of hundreds of radical protesters, until the evening A total of 32 people were arrested at that time.

The mentality of the participants is also gradually pessimistic. Corinne Niellini, a 44-year-old civil servant, told Le Monde (Le Monde), "The outcome of the struggle seems to be doomed, and the bill will definitely be passed, regardless of means." For his part, Frederic said: "Unfortunately, these actions do not appear to be able to change those in power. But we should be there to at least protest the chronic contempt for labor, the opposition and the people."

The Pension Reform Act includes delaying the statutory retirement age from 62 to 64, advancing the schedule for receiving full pensions and increasing the payment contribution to 43 years, and canceling the special retirement system for civil servants and state-level agency employees. The people of the whole country are dissatisfied.

After the Senate passes the bill, the next step will be sent to the French Parliament Bicameral Mixed Mediation Committee (CMP) consisting of 7 members of the National Assembly and 7 members of the Senate on the 15th, and then sent to the Senate and the National Assembly for a final vote on the 16th vote.