Millions march against pension reforms

President Nicolas Sarkozy could face the greatest challenge of his presidency in the next few days as a month-old protest against pension reform swells towards outright confrontation.

More than three million demonstrators - one in 20 of all French people - marched yesterday against the President's plans to raise the standard retirement age from 60 to 62.

Tens of thousands of students joined the marches for the first time, threatening to radicalise the protests and broaden them into a rebellion against a deeply unpopular presidency.

Militant union branches in the railway and oil-refining industries were pushing this week for a showdown with Sarkozy, who has made reform of the loss-making state pension system the make-or-break issue of his final 20 months in office.

After a series of largely theatrical 24-hour strikes in the past six weeks, militant workers were expected to vote today for the kind of open-ended stoppages in strategic industries which have overturned previous attempts to reform the French social system.

It remains to be seen, however, how much support open-ended strikes would receive. Moderate, national union leaders fear that extended railway, Metro or oil refinery strikes could fizzle out or alienate public opinion - presenting Sarkozy with a victory.

Rail and air services were severely disrupted yesterday. Many schools and government offices, and even the Eiffel Tower, closed. Eleven out of the nation's 12 oil refineries were wholly or partially closed in what local union branches threaten could become an indefinite stoppage. The state railway company, the SNCF, warned that it expected widespread cancellations.

Sarkozy has staked his reputation as a tough and reforming President on the pension issue and will not easily back down. He says that pension change is unavoidable - and a test case for France's willingness to rescue its "social model".

The state pensions budget is already €32 billion ($59 billion) in deficit. With people living longer and fewer young people in the workforce, the annual losses will more than double in the next 20 years.

Up to 3.5 million people were estimated by unions to have joined raucous protest marches in more than 300 French towns and cities yesterday. The young, mostly leftist marchers interviewed made it clear that they were "sick to the teeth" with Sarkozy's presidency generally - and especially his campaign against Roma immigrants.

They insisted the pension reform could make it harder for them to find jobs by forcing older people to stay in the workforce for two more years.

Jeremy Gomez, 18, a lycee student from the Seine et Marne department, said: "We are sick of everything Sarkozy stands for, especially his authoritarianism and xenophobia. But this pension reform is not just about old people. It will hurt us too."

Some moderate trade union leaders, and even some centre-right politicians, say Sarkozy will be delighted to face prolonged strikes and street protests.

They say he wants to go into the next presidential election as the man who - unlike centre-right Governments in 1995 and 2006 - forced through social reforms and did not cave into the "conservatism of the left".

- Independent