After almost a week of demonstrations Nicolas Sarkozy has been forced to appeal for calm after cars were burned and shop windows smashed today.
Additionally the oil refinery strike is biting now all over the country. Around 4,000 petrol stations are running out, or are out of petrol, with long queues building up.
It is expected soon that fuel supplies for freight vehicles will run out and at that point distribution of food and supplies to factories and shops will start to dry up.
Sarkozy, who was at an international summit in Deauville, has set up an emergency committee to deal with the crisis, He said that he cannot allow shortages; that the majority of people want to work and must not be prevented from doing so by a lack of petrol.
He has said that he will not pull back from his pension reforms, which include raising the basic age of retirement from 60 to 62.
At the end of this week his Bill will face its vote in the Senate and this will mean it is a step closer becoming law. This Senate vote has already been postponed from last week.
However, Nicolas should be aware that no matter what he does, the French do not like it when someone attacks their way of life. They take a different attitude to life in most of France. It is about living; not about working. Work is necessary to allow one to live, but it is not life. Life is food and art and wine and politics and philosophy and fun and l'amour.... and some work.
The strikers will not let the mere fact that the Senate has approved the Bill get in the way of their intention to reverse it. They consider the reform to be unfair and they intend to stop it, as they have done with other laws in the past that they felt were contrary to the French way of life.
The manifestations include people from all walks of life, and strangely to Celtic minds, include school children. Around 380 schools were disrupted on Tuesday. (Kids learn early to protect their cherished way of life.)
Students too are protesting on the basis that keeping people at work for another two years will mean that there will be a shortage of jobs for them, as the normal process of retirement and promotion is interrupted.
There have been calls for a General Strike too, and it could happen, as people are more and more discontent with the right wing president and the way public services have diminished on his watch.
Of course many will say that les réformes des retraites is long overdue. There is a large pensions shortfall as there is in most countries. But I have a feeling that Sarkozy will end up ruing the day he tackled le public français on such a thorny subject. He may get his Bill through, but will he make it work? And he only has 18 months before the next presidential election!!
Additionally the oil refinery strike is biting now all over the country. Around 4,000 petrol stations are running out, or are out of petrol, with long queues building up.
It is expected soon that fuel supplies for freight vehicles will run out and at that point distribution of food and supplies to factories and shops will start to dry up.
Sarkozy, who was at an international summit in Deauville, has set up an emergency committee to deal with the crisis, He said that he cannot allow shortages; that the majority of people want to work and must not be prevented from doing so by a lack of petrol.
He has said that he will not pull back from his pension reforms, which include raising the basic age of retirement from 60 to 62.
At the end of this week his Bill will face its vote in the Senate and this will mean it is a step closer becoming law. This Senate vote has already been postponed from last week.
However, Nicolas should be aware that no matter what he does, the French do not like it when someone attacks their way of life. They take a different attitude to life in most of France. It is about living; not about working. Work is necessary to allow one to live, but it is not life. Life is food and art and wine and politics and philosophy and fun and l'amour.... and some work.
The strikers will not let the mere fact that the Senate has approved the Bill get in the way of their intention to reverse it. They consider the reform to be unfair and they intend to stop it, as they have done with other laws in the past that they felt were contrary to the French way of life.
The manifestations include people from all walks of life, and strangely to Celtic minds, include school children. Around 380 schools were disrupted on Tuesday. (Kids learn early to protect their cherished way of life.)
Students too are protesting on the basis that keeping people at work for another two years will mean that there will be a shortage of jobs for them, as the normal process of retirement and promotion is interrupted.
There have been calls for a General Strike too, and it could happen, as people are more and more discontent with the right wing president and the way public services have diminished on his watch.
Of course many will say that les réformes des retraites is long overdue. There is a large pensions shortfall as there is in most countries. But I have a feeling that Sarkozy will end up ruing the day he tackled le public français on such a thorny subject. He may get his Bill through, but will he make it work? And he only has 18 months before the next presidential election!!
