News - Middle East: France's National Assembly Speaker Yael Braun-Pivet has ruled out an opposition-sponsored motion to cast vote on repealing the unpopular pension law that divided the nation and sparked social unrest across the country.

Braun-Pivet firmly declared on Wednesday that she would not allow the motion to overturn the new law to be debated and put to vote on Thursday, as scheduled. 
"There will be no reversal of the pension reform. I will declare that the amendments proposed are not valid," she said during an interview with the local BFM television.
The highly controversial bill aimed at raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 triggered numerous violent protest rallies and strikes across France for the past several months. 
Back in March, French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne pushed the bill through the National Assembly without a vote, using a special constitutional measure only to further infuriate the opposition, which accused the government of ignoring the rights of parliament members.
Despite the raging rallies against the bill, French President Emmanuel Macron finally signed it into law on April 16.