French lawmakers vote for pension bill after bitter debate

PARIS (Reuters) - A pension reform bill that includes a rise in the retirement age cleared its first main hurdle on Wednesday when France's lower house approved it after a bitter debate among lawmakers.

Several thousand people, led by trade unionists, had converged in front of the National Assembly, brandishing banners and waving scarlet flares demanding a withdrawal of the bill ahead of the vote.

After massive street protests and strikes that disrupted air and rail traffic on September 7, unions have raised the stakes, calling for workers to down tools again on September 23 as the bill winds its way through parliament.

The vote took place after a marathon overnight debate and some vitriolic exchanges with 329 members approving the bill and 233 opposing it.

But the vote was never in real question as President Nicolas Sarkozy's ruling party retains a comfortable majority in the lower house of parliament.

The job of defending the bill went to Labour Minister Eric Woerth, who has been dogged by a political funding scandal and allegations of influence-peddling.

One member of the opposition Socialists, who were infuriated by the National Assembly chairman's decision to accelerate the move to a vote, accused Woerth of being a liar.

Wednesday's largely symbolic protest coincided with a vote that amounts to the half-way stage to adoption of a bill that many regard as the flagship reform of Sarkozy's five-year term.

"It's important to not just do nothing on a day when parliament is voting on a bill that's not right for workers," said a spokesman for the energy branch of the CGT union, which has called for a strike in the sector on Wednesday.

Facing a tough re-election battle in 2012, Sarkozy and his centre-right government are standing firm on a measure that would raise the minimum retirement age to 62 by 2018. It currently stands at 60, one of the lowest levels in the European Union.

Following the protest on September 7, the government has made minor adjustments to the bill, which also raises to 67 from 65 the age when people are entitled to retire on a full pension -- a key part of its plan to balance the system's finances by 2018 and reduce debts bloated by the recession of 2008-2009.

Sarkozy told senators from his party on Wednesday there could still be room for amendments to the final text, although not its core.

The bill will now be debated in the Senate -- the upper house -- at the beginning of October with the government wanting to pass it by November.

"The battle is not lost," said Segolene Royal, the Socialist who lost to Sarkozy in the 2007 vote. "The response has to be very, very strong. It is an unjust and dangerous reform."

A BVA poll on Wednesday showed almost 60 percent of people want the government to make more concessions on the bill.

However, most French voters are resigned to the need to overhaul the loss-making pension system in some way, and analysts say the unions may struggle to turn their protests into something big enough to force the government to backtrack.

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