French Senate adopts Macron‍‍`s pension reform in wake of days of protests

The French Senate on Saturday adopted President Emmanuel Macron‍‍`s unpopular pension reform plan, with 195 votes for and 112 votes against, a bill whose key measure is raising the retirement age by two years to 64.

The upper house of the French Parliament voted on the text in the wake of a seventh day of nationwide demonstrations against the plan. A majority of voters oppose the text, according to opinion polls.

Now that the Senate has adopted the bill, it will be reviewed by a joint committee of lower and upper house lawmakers, probably on Wednesday.

If the committee agrees on a text, a final vote in both chambers is likely to take place on Thursday, but the outcome of that still seems uncertain in the lower chamber, the National Assembly, where Macron‍‍`s party needs allies‍‍` votes for a majority.

If the government fears it won‍‍`t have enough votes in the lower house, it is still possible for it to push the text through without a parliamentary vote, via a so-called 49:3 procedure.

An additional day of nationwide strikes and protests was planned for Wednesday.