...October 28, Place de la Republique..today,..a protest of tens of thousands...the day after the vote in the Senate the government succeeded in pushing through the reform which set the age of full pension at 62 years rather than the existing law which grants retirement at 60 years of age after a worker has worked 41 years....The reform will go into effect gradually over an 8-year period and will entitle public sector employees to receive 66% of their averaged salary received over the last 15 years of employment.

    The new measure was opposed by 70% of the people many of who protested throughout France regularly over the past month in demonstrations sometimes with more than 3 million protesters...  The new law was approved not because of its public support but rather because of President Sakozy's control of the Parliament and Senate..

    Sarkozy's popularity has plummetted to a new low of less than a 30% rate of approval and although the workers lost this battle they were successful at mobilizing and gaining support of a large majority of the population.  The challenge that remains is for the opposition to choose a viable candidate.

   Sarkozy and his party the UMP are seen by many as favoring "big business" and financiers...and their proposal, now law,  raising the age of retirement in an attempt to ease public debt is regarded as putting the burden mainly on public and some private sector workers..

photo 1.. a  worker from the oil refinery Grand Puits which was forcibly opened by the police after all the nation's refineries went on strike causing nation-wide fuel shortages.