French retirement reforms set for final vote
The French parliament is expected to grant final approval to a contested plan to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62 today, a reform that has sparked street protests and strikes.
The vote in the National Assembly is the bill’s final step in parliament.
The Senate approved the text yesterday. Conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy is expected to sign the bill in mid-November.
For two weeks, nationwide protests and strikes over the reform have disrupted life in France, cancelling trains, closing schools and shutting petrol stations.
The movement has been losing momentum in recent days.
Bin collectors in southern France have gone back to work to tackle two weeks’ worth of piled-up rubbish and some oil workers have deserted their picket lines.
