02:01France: Thousands of students march in Paris as Senate votes on controversial pension reform
Members of student associations and secondary school students participated in a mass protest as senators voted in favor of raising the national retirement age from 62 to 64, Thursday.
Footage shows activists marching through the city streets under the watch of numerous police officers.
France has seen a large scale of strikes organised by workers’ unions since January, following the government’s plan to increase the retirement age from 62 to 64 by 2030.
Ministers reportedly say the changes will balance the deficit in the system caused by longer life expectancy.
The reform has proven very unpopular among the public, with almost 60 percent supporting protests against it, according to an Elabe poll published on Monday.
France, along with a handful of other EU countries, has the lowest pension age in Europe, spending nearly 14 per cent of its economic output on them.
The last reform, in 2011, raised the retirement age from 60 to 62.
02:01Members of student associations and secondary school students participated in a mass protest as senators voted in favor of raising the national retirement age from 62 to 64, Thursday.
Footage shows activists marching through the city streets under the watch of numerous police officers.
France has seen a large scale of strikes organised by workers’ unions since January, following the government’s plan to increase the retirement age from 62 to 64 by 2030.
Ministers reportedly say the changes will balance the deficit in the system caused by longer life expectancy.
The reform has proven very unpopular among the public, with almost 60 percent supporting protests against it, according to an Elabe poll published on Monday.
France, along with a handful of other EU countries, has the lowest pension age in Europe, spending nearly 14 per cent of its economic output on them.
The last reform, in 2011, raised the retirement age from 60 to 62.