France, Oct. 16 -- France's Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu survived two no confidence votes in the National Assembly on Thursday after winning last-minute backing from Socialist MPs over his decision to suspend a contested pension reform.

The first motion, put forward by the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI), fell 18 votes short of the 289 needed to bring down the government.

It was backed by some Socialist MPs as well as Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally (RN) and the small right-wing Union of the Rights for the Republic(UDR).

A second motion, tabled by the RN and the UDR, was put to the vote shortly afterwards and gathered 144 votes.

During heated debates before the first vote, Socialist MP Laurent Baumel defended the party's c...