"This [a no confidence vote] is a kind of a parliamentary referendum. Those who are against the reform can support it [a vote of no confidence] to express the disagreement of tens of thousands of French people," Le Pen told French broadcaster on Wednesday.
The left coalition New Ecological and Social People's Union (Nupes) has put forward over 13,000 amendments to the pension reform in order to block the review of the draft law, the politician stated.
"It will take 1,150 hours to consider them [amendments], while we only have 28 [hours] left," Le Pen said, adding that there was no time left for consideration of the main, the seventh, article of the draft law on raising the retirement age to 64.
The no confidence vote will take place on February 17, the last day of draft law review in the lower house of the French parliament.
9 February 2023, 00:35 GMT
On January 10, French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne presented a draft pension reform legislation, which the government plans to implement in September 2023. According to Borne's plan, the French government will begin to raise the retirement age in the country by three months per year from September 1, gradually increasing it from the current age of 62 to 64 by 2030.
The first general strike against the pension reform plan took place on January 19 and gathered over a million people nationwide, with 80,000 in Paris. A total of 2.8 million people took part in the second demonstration on January 31. However, only around 757,000 people showed up at the third nationwide protest last week, with 57,000 in Paris alone. The fifth national demonstration is scheduled for Thursday.