French senators to start debating contested pension plan

By SYLVIE CORBET
Associated Press

PARIS (AP) — French senators will start debating President Emmanuel Macron’s contested pension plan. 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 that aims to raise the country’s minimum retirement age from 62 to 64. But nationwide demonstrations and strikes and opinion polls consistently show a majority of French people oppose the change. The debate starts in the French Senate on Thursday afternoon.