French Senate Passes Retirement Age Increase as Protests Ease

[Freddie Stubbs]

Source: Bloomberg

The French Senate passed President Nicolas Sarkozy’s pension bill, paving the way for the minimum retirement age to increase to 62 from 60. The bill goes tomorrow for a final vote at the National Assembly.

Protests against the plan eased today as a quarter of France’s oil refinery workers agreed to go back to work and garbage collectors ended a 14-day walkout in Marseille.

After several strikes and demonstrations over the past seven weeks that left the country crippled with fuel shortages and some public transport disruptions, protesters at three of France’s 12 refineries voted yesterday to resume working. Almost all of the barricades at France’s 219 fuel depots have been lifted. Eighty percent of service stations should be back in business today, Energy Minister Jean-Louis Borloo said.

“I salute the return to dialogue and reason,” Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said on Radio Classique. “The economy needs to function and to do that we need an end to these blockages.” She said the strikes won’t result in the government changing its growth forecast for this year.

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-26/protests-against-sarkozy-pension-plan-ease-students-to-march.html

[onehandle]

1. The Right is done in France. Meanwhile in the U.S., we protest to be screwed by corporations. nt

[Ginto]

2. Does not sound good. nt

[Cleita]

3. The French seem to know how to protect their

rights from conservatives. We need to take lessons.

[Freddie Stubbs]

7. How so? The law passed anyway

[Cleita]

10. They didn't go down without a fight and I think this

law is going to be reversed as soon as they get rid of the politicians who passed it. Wait and see. This is just round one. The French have a history of taking to the streets with demonstrations. We just sit around and whine lot, allow ourselves to be herded into free speech zones when we do protest, and then whine some more. We will never change the corruption in Washington until many activists stage demonstrations like sit-ins that disrupt business as usual and frankly scares the establishment political nabobs there in Washington.

[harvey007]

4. This is a global problem

What's happening to the French people is happening to people everywhere. The middle class is being systematically destroyed.

[alp227]

5. So? Doesn't France have a budget problem?

As does the rest of the world? I don't see much the big deal in a 2-year elevation, even though I support the middle class. Pensions are good but must be sustainable.

[davidwparker]

6. This is what happens when a country flirts with the right.

Vive la France, but what did you expect?

[FLPanhandle]

8. Wait. They quit when the senate passed the increase but before the Assembly vote?

All that hullabaloo and they walk away from the fight right at the end?

What am I missing here? The government pay off the strike leaders or something?

[pampango]

9. BBC: The bill is almost certain to pass but will face legal challenges before President Nicolas

Sarkozy can sign it into law next month.

France's National Assembly is set to take its final vote on raising the pension age by two years after weeks of industrial action across the country.

Protesters continue to block refineries and other sites but the movement has lost much of its steam. Union leaders say they will pursue the protest in other ways.

Opinion polls suggest that Mr Sarkozy's approval ratings have plummeted to record lows of below 30%, 18 months before the next presidential election.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11633178
----------------------------------------------------------
France: A tale of two protests

As France's largest demonstrations in years seem to be dying down — lawmakers will vote on the pension reform they were protesting this week — a deep sense of frustration remains.

Among the most visible and angry groups are union workers and violent protesters. Although it might be tempting to assimilate the two crowds, which took the streets on the same days and were both protesting President Nicolas Sarkozy’s right-wing policies, they actually are two very distinct groups.



The first crowd, below, is from an older generation. The demonstrators grew up in an era when French society was structured by ideologies, including communism.



This second crowd, suburban youths, is not any more inclusive, but for a very different reason — these protesters can be violent.