Pension rallies continue but protest wanes

HUNDREDS OF thousands took to the streets across France yesterday for a seventh day of action against Nicolas Sarkozy’s pension…

HUNDREDS OF thousands took to the streets across France yesterday for a seventh day of action against Nicolas Sarkozy’s pension reform, but the controversial Bill’s approval by parliament this week has led to a waning of the protest movement.

Some 270 rallies were held across the country and the strikes caused further disruption for air and rail passengers, but the turnout was lower than for previous demonstrations over the past two months. The trade unions’ campaign against plans to raise the retirement age has led to rolling strikes, oil depot blockades and school closures in recent weeks, but organisers this week signalled their intention to wind down their protests in favour of negotiations.

“What’s impressive is that this is doubtless the first time that we have had such large demonstrations on the day after a law was approved,” the leader of the CGT union, Bernard Thibault, said as the protests got under way.

However, his union accepted in the afternoon that attendance at the Paris event was half that of the turnout on October 19th.

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Flights in and out of French airports were reduced by between 30 and 50 per cent due to the one-day stoppage by air traffic controllers, while a strike by rail workers halved some services but caused less disruption than previously to high-speed links.

Workers at a major refinery in southeast France voted to stop blocking fuel from leaving, in another sign that protests that have hit petrol pumps are easing. The government estimated that more than 80 per cent of petrol stations had full stocks.

As the Paris march got under way at Place de la République, there was a determined, good-humoured mood in the crowd. Like many others, Georges Hoff, a Parisian healthcare worker who marched with his CGT branch, was resigned to the reform being enacted but believed some concessions could still be extracted from government.

"Lost? No. We can't lose," he said. "But we won't be able to win either. I think we'll have to change the way we show our discontent now. The law is the law – that's the problem. We're obliged to accept it, but that doesn't mean that people are any less opposed to this reform." Public opposition to the government's plan has generally held steady for the past two months, with a survey published in yesterday's Le Parisienshowing that 65 per cent of voters supported the unions' campaign.

“The fact that I’m here tells you I still believe we can defeat this,” said Sylvie Morin, a protester who gives home help to elderly people and was taking part in her third strike day yesterday. “I don’t think the unions intend to step back from this. And you have to hope that it will arise again as an issue in 2012. It’s unfair. They didn’t even discuss it with the unions. In my sector, workers are exhausted by the time they get to 60. If I have to work till 65, I don’t know what state I’ll be in . . . They thought we wouldn’t react. They were wrong.”

The Socialist Party said it would lodge an appeal to the pensions Bill with the constitutional council, but Mr Sarkozy expects to sign it into law within three weeks. “The vigour of the debates was legitimate, but the law of the Republic must from now on be accepted by all,” prime minister François Fillon said. “Everyone should be aware of how to emerge from this crisis responsibly and with mutual respect.”