France’s National Assembly approved a sweeping retirement reform plan today, including a highly contested measure to increase the retirement age from 60 to 62.

The French Senate today overwhelmingly backed a bill banning the wearing of the full Islamic veil in public.

French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin has been sidelined. President Jacques Chirac has been forced into a subtle switch of loyalties to save face. And the two leaders’ mutual rival, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, is now at centre-stage.