French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne offered today to ease planned pension reform and allow people who started working early to also take early retirement in order to win the support of conservatives in parliament for its implementation.

President Emmanuel Macron's government wants to raise the retirement age by two years to 64 and extend the length of time workers must pay into pension contributions, as part of a reform it says is necessary for the system in the coming years. be in the minus.

Since his party lost its absolute majority in parliament in last year's election, the government needs the votes of conservative Republicans to pass the unpopular pension reform in parliament.

While workers who started working before age 20 would be allowed to leave the workforce early under the reform, Bourne said she was open to proposals from the Conservatives that would benefit most workers.

- We will extend the measure to those who started working at the age of 20 and 21. They will be able to retire at 63, Bourne said in an interview with the weekly newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche.

Lower House Republican spokesman Pierre-Henri Dimon told radio Francinfo that the concession did not go far enough to win the support of members of his party.

Born said the move would affect around 30.000 people and cost up to one billion euros a year, meaning an additional source of funding would need to be found.

Dumont said the alternative amendment proposed by his party would benefit "hundreds of thousands" of people a year.

After the reform was introduced on January 10, Prime Minister Bourne's government faced a two-day national strike, with unions planning another on Tuesday.