Lower house approves government's controversial pension reforms

The Lower house has approved the government's long-awaited set of pension reforms, which include tightening the rules around early retirement and reducing the indexation of pensions. The approval of the controversial bill took three parliamentary sessions, with MPs having already sat down to discuss the bill on Wednesday and Friday last week without getting to vote, due to fillibustering from the opposition.

In order to counteract this, the government coalition pushed through a limit on speaking time and set a fixed time for the vote this week.

The bill will now go to the Senate. The majority of the reforms should begin to apply from as early as September, if things go according to the cabinet's plan.