France’s debate on contested pension bill to head to Senate

PARIS (AP) — The lower house of France’s parliament is debating a contested pension bill aimed at raising the country’s retirement age from 62 to 64. President Emmanuel Macron’s government has vowed to go ahead with the reform despite nationwide protests and strikes and opinion polls consistently showing a majority of French people oppose the change. The National Assembly’s two-week discussion has featured flaring tempers and thousands of amendments proposed mostly by the left-wing opposition. Lawmakers have a Friday deadline to finish debating the bill before sending it on to the Senate. Both the government and the opposition accused each other of hurting the democratic debate with political tactics.