The French Senate, dominated by the opposition conservatives since September, has overturned a proposed law on prostitution that sought to penalise clients instead of sex workers, reports FRANCE 24.
The Senate’s legislation completely revises a bill passed by France's lower National Assembly in 2013 that never took effect.
Prostitution is currently legal in France, but prostitutes are often arrested and charged for soliciting in public, which is prohibited.
Brothels, pimping and the sale of sex by minors are also illegal.
The 2013 bill proposed to introduce a 1,500-euro fine for buyers and decriminalise soliciting, known in France as racolage.
But under the new bill passed by the Senate overnight Monday, prostitutes would continue to face fines of up to 3,750 euros and two months in prison for selling sex, while the previous provision of fining clients would be dropped.
The Senate’s revised bill will have to be approved by the National Assembly before it can go into law.
Both versions of the legislation have drawn fierce opposition from sex workers who say they would simply push prostitution further underground and make the women who earn their living from it more vulnerable to abuse.