French senators begin debate on Macron’s contested pension reform

The French Senate examines the government's proposed pension reform, in Paris on March 2, 2023. © Christophe Archambault, AFP

French senators will start debating President Emmanuel Macron’s contested pension plan on Thursday, as the centrist government hopes to find a compromise with the conservatives at the upper house of parliament to be able to push the bill through.

Macron has vowed to go ahead with the bill, which aims to raise the country’s minimum retirement age from 62 to 64, despite nationwide demonstrations and strikes and opinion polls consistently showing a majority of French people oppose the change.