French MPs withdraw 1,000 amendments to speed up parliament's pension reform debate

Mathilde Panot, the leader of the far-left France Unbowed group in the National Assembly reacts during the start of debates on the pension reform on 6 February 2023. Debate on the legislation on the 20,000 amendments introduced by the opposition has often been acrimonious. © Christophe Ena/AP

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.