French Senate

(Newser) - Socialists and other left-wing parties captured the French Senate in yesterday's elections for the first time since the founding of the Fifth Republic in 1958, reports the BBC . France's sputtering economy and high unemployment, combined with divisions among the right, caused the dramatic shift. This "will go...

(Newser) - The chaos in France won't be subsiding any time soon: The French Senate today approved Nicolas Sarkozy's plan to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62, reports Bloomberg . That all but makes certain the measure will become law, possibly next week—a fact that doesn't mean much to the...

(Newser) - French riot police forced open a strategic fuel refinery today that had been a bastion of resistance to President Sarkozy's bid to raise the retirement age to 62, pushing striking workers aside with shields in a bid to end gasoline shortages. The operation came as the French Senate prepared to...