Paris:
French workers sought on Thursday to test President Nicolas Sarkozy's resolve on overhauling the pension system, staging a major strike that snarled transportation and closed schools and public offices for the second time this month.
Protesters rallied in 232 demonstrations around the country to protest Sarkozy's plan to raise the minimum retirement age to 62 from 60 beginning in 2018, and to raise the age at which full pension benefits can be received to 67 from 65. At least 1.1 million people joined demonstrations September 7 for the same cause.
The changes in the pension system have already been adopted by the National Assembly and face a hearing October 1 in the Senate. Sarkozy's party comfortably controls both houses, and the government hopes to have the law on the books by November. But public opposition has led governments to water down such measures before.
"The stakes are very high for Sarkozy right now, because these are seminal reforms," Paul Vallet, a professor at the Institut d'Études Politiques in Paris, said. "These would be the first major changes pushed through since 1945."
"If he succeeds, he'll show that the labor movement doesn't have the same paralyzing function that it had under previous governments," Vallet said. "I think that, for him, this is as big as health care was for Obama."
Sarkozy, battered in opinion polls by political scandals and in the European Union for his rough handling of the Roma, or Gypsies, has insisted that only minor concessions are possible, as the strength of the public finances depends on decisive action to control entitlement spending.
Considering that the French population is aging and life expectancy is increasing, "there's no other solution," Jean-François Copé, the parliamentary leader of Sarkozy's party, UMP, said on Thursday on LCI Television.
The Socialist leader, Martine Aubry, disagreed. "We want pension reform, but we want one that definitively solves the problem, unlike the two previous efforts, and one that is just," she said Thursday on RTL Radio in explaining why her party backed the strike.
Amid discord in the ranks of Sarkozy's party, he is expected to reshuffle his cabinet next month, possibly replacing his prime minister, François Fillon. To increase the political pressure, union leaders hoped to draw an even larger mobilization than two weeks ago, and they said their wishes were fulfilled.
But the French news media cited the presidential Élysée Palace as reporting a "noticeable decline" in the number of demonstrators compared with September 7, declaring it a possible sign that the French were on board for the overhaul.
The newspaper Le Monde cited government officials as saying just under 20 percent of public servants had walked off the job, while the Paris transportation authorities said 16 percent of workers out on strike, down from 22 percent who had participated September 7.
The strikers enjoyed broad support from the public. A national poll conducted by Viavoice for the newspaper Libération found people siding with the unions over the government by a ratio of two to one, with more than four-fifths of those surveyed expressing a negative opinion of Sarkozy. The representative telephone poll, of 1,002 French people 18 and over, was published on Thursday. Jean-Claude Mailly, secretary general of one union, Force Ouvrière, told France 2 television that the strikers' goal was "to make the government back down," adding: "The ideal result would be that they say, 'We're suspending everything, stopping everything, reopen the discussion.' "
Mailly said the government was unhappy to see an increasing number of youths joining the demonstrators, noting that student demonstrations in 2006 led to the withdrawal of proposed labor law reforms.
The French national railway, SNCF, reported that only one-quarter to one-half of its TGVs and other trains were running as scheduled. Channel Tunnel traffic between Paris and London was functioning as normal, it said.
Traffic at airports serving Paris was disrupted, with at least half of flights at both Orly and Charles de Gaulle canceled, and the suburban rail line serving the airports was unreliable, with only one-third of trains running and connections inside Paris mostly closed.
In Paris, traffic was bumper to bumper in the city center, while the Métro lines were crowded but mostly running normally, or nearly so, the authorities said. About three-quarters of buses were running, they said.
Unions said about half of all teachers were on strike, but the Education Ministry said the number was closer to one-quarter.
Workers walked off the job at nuclear power plants run by Électricité de France and blocked deliveries to oil refineries run by Total, Bloomberg News reported, citing union officials.
Protesters rallied in 232 demonstrations around the country to protest Sarkozy's plan to raise the minimum retirement age to 62 from 60 beginning in 2018, and to raise the age at which full pension benefits can be received to 67 from 65. At least 1.1 million people joined demonstrations September 7 for the same cause.
The changes in the pension system have already been adopted by the National Assembly and face a hearing October 1 in the Senate. Sarkozy's party comfortably controls both houses, and the government hopes to have the law on the books by November. But public opposition has led governments to water down such measures before.
"The stakes are very high for Sarkozy right now, because these are seminal reforms," Paul Vallet, a professor at the Institut d'Études Politiques in Paris, said. "These would be the first major changes pushed through since 1945."
"If he succeeds, he'll show that the labor movement doesn't have the same paralyzing function that it had under previous governments," Vallet said. "I think that, for him, this is as big as health care was for Obama."
Sarkozy, battered in opinion polls by political scandals and in the European Union for his rough handling of the Roma, or Gypsies, has insisted that only minor concessions are possible, as the strength of the public finances depends on decisive action to control entitlement spending.
Considering that the French population is aging and life expectancy is increasing, "there's no other solution," Jean-François Copé, the parliamentary leader of Sarkozy's party, UMP, said on Thursday on LCI Television.
The Socialist leader, Martine Aubry, disagreed. "We want pension reform, but we want one that definitively solves the problem, unlike the two previous efforts, and one that is just," she said Thursday on RTL Radio in explaining why her party backed the strike.
Amid discord in the ranks of Sarkozy's party, he is expected to reshuffle his cabinet next month, possibly replacing his prime minister, François Fillon. To increase the political pressure, union leaders hoped to draw an even larger mobilization than two weeks ago, and they said their wishes were fulfilled.
But the French news media cited the presidential Élysée Palace as reporting a "noticeable decline" in the number of demonstrators compared with September 7, declaring it a possible sign that the French were on board for the overhaul.
The newspaper Le Monde cited government officials as saying just under 20 percent of public servants had walked off the job, while the Paris transportation authorities said 16 percent of workers out on strike, down from 22 percent who had participated September 7.
The strikers enjoyed broad support from the public. A national poll conducted by Viavoice for the newspaper Libération found people siding with the unions over the government by a ratio of two to one, with more than four-fifths of those surveyed expressing a negative opinion of Sarkozy. The representative telephone poll, of 1,002 French people 18 and over, was published on Thursday. Jean-Claude Mailly, secretary general of one union, Force Ouvrière, told France 2 television that the strikers' goal was "to make the government back down," adding: "The ideal result would be that they say, 'We're suspending everything, stopping everything, reopen the discussion.' "
Mailly said the government was unhappy to see an increasing number of youths joining the demonstrators, noting that student demonstrations in 2006 led to the withdrawal of proposed labor law reforms.
The French national railway, SNCF, reported that only one-quarter to one-half of its TGVs and other trains were running as scheduled. Channel Tunnel traffic between Paris and London was functioning as normal, it said.
Traffic at airports serving Paris was disrupted, with at least half of flights at both Orly and Charles de Gaulle canceled, and the suburban rail line serving the airports was unreliable, with only one-third of trains running and connections inside Paris mostly closed.
In Paris, traffic was bumper to bumper in the city center, while the Métro lines were crowded but mostly running normally, or nearly so, the authorities said. About three-quarters of buses were running, they said.
Unions said about half of all teachers were on strike, but the Education Ministry said the number was closer to one-quarter.
Workers walked off the job at nuclear power plants run by Électricité de France and blocked deliveries to oil refineries run by Total, Bloomberg News reported, citing union officials.
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