A large majority of French senators on Thursday voted against an article in a bill on the ratification of a free trade deal between the European Union and Canada, dubbed CETA in a closely-watched vote after farmers slammed liberal trade policies in weeks of protests.
A majority of 211 senators opposed against 44 who voted in favour of the ratification.
The vote still needs to be confirmed through a final vote on the whole bill, expected for later on Thursday.
A definitive rejection by the Senate would mean the bill needs to go back to France’s lower house of parliament, the National Assembly, where lawmakers had backed CETA in 2019 in a very tight vote.
Since then, President Emmanuel Macron – an advocate of free trade policies – has lost his absolute majority in the chamber.
