PARIS — Scores of flights were canceled, drivers lined up for fuel and tens of thousands of people, young and old, took to the streets of Paris and other cities on Tuesday as protests over President Nicolas Sarkozy’s plans to change France’s pension system mounted in advance of a final parliamentary vote this week. þþThe protests came on the sixth day of national strikes or demonstrations since early September. þþGarbage workers, teachers, armored truck drivers supplying automated teller machines and an array of others planned to join the stoppage Tuesday. Protest organizations said more than 260 demonstrations were planned during the day, ratcheting up the battle of nerves between the authorities and unions demanding that the government retreat from reforms as previous administrations did in 1995 and 2006. þþYoung people threw up barricades of garbage cans to snarl traffic in the Place de la République in central Paris and scuffles between high school students and riot police were reported from there and from the suburb of Nanterre. þþThe disruption, building since the first national protest on Sept. 7, has been compounded by strikes at oil refineries now in their eighth day and blockades of fuel depots, leaving motorists scrambling to fill up their tanks. þþIn central Paris, drivers lined up at gas stations hoping to fill their tanks before a two-week school vacation beginning this weekend. Many waited for as long as an hour, creeping toward pumps that were not yet empty of fuel. Some drivers from the suburbs said they had tried to fill up at other stations on their way into the city, but without success. At least one fifth of France’s 12,000 service stations have run out of some products. þþBut Mr. Sarkozy has shown no sign of abandoning his plan to raise the minimum retirement age to 62 from 60. þþ“The reform is essential and France is committed to it and will go ahead with it just as our German partners did,” he told reporters late Monday in the Normandy resort of Deauville, Reuters reported. þþOn Tuesday he said it was his duty to enact the reforms and he promised measures to guarantee fuel supplies. þþMr. Sarkozy was speaking after talks with President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany. The government in Berlin resolved in 2007 to raise its retirement age from 62 to 63 by 2029, in line with a broader European trend. Overall, the continent is aging and, as people live longer with smaller families, fewer young people are available to pay for the continent’s social safety nets. þþOn Tuesday, police said a high school in Le Mans, southwest of Paris, was destroyed by arson in the early hours, but it was not clear if the blaze was linked to the protests. Transport authorities in Paris said commuter rail services would be cut by as much as a half. þþThe national railroad authority also announced cancellations of around half its high-speed and normal services on Tuesday, but said the Eurostar Paris-London link would not be affected. The authority said support for the strike among railroad workers seemed to be running at around 30 percent compared to 40 percent for the previous stoppage one week ago. þþAt the Gare du Nord railroad station in Paris, travelers waited on benches, then raced for trains running on a reduced schedule. “It’s absolutely absurd,” said Emmanuel de Boos, 56, a writer from the western city of Nantes. “We absolutely need to reform the retirement system as it exists today.” þþ“I think these strikes are more about other things,” he said, likening them to a referendum on Mr. Sarkozy. “ This is a reaction against the elite.” þþYannick Kalu, 25, a student from a northern suburb of Paris, called Mr. Sarkozy’s reforms a bad idea. “For those who began working early in life it’s going to be rough.” He agreed that the strikes were about the broader issue of Mr. Sarkozy’s rule. “I really do hope it’s going to stop,” he said, but added, “We can’t hold it against people to worry about their retirements.” þþIn the central Chatelet neighborhood, Marie Rodriguez, 35, a middle school teacher, said the broad response to the protests “proves that not only one group is against the reform but that everybody is concerned. I support the strike.” þþAt Orly airport near Paris, where half of the scheduled flights were grounded, travelers peered at departure boards recording cancellations and delays. þþMartin Raggio, 31, and Alejandro Molettieri, 29, who both work at a brewery in Buenos Aires, Argentina, had come to Orly after their train to Barcelona was canceled. “I guess we will wait here, we will sleep here in Orly maybe, until we can leave,” Mr. Roggio said glumly. ÿWe knew about the strike but we were hoping we would be okay.” þþAt other French airports, around a third of flights were expected to be affected as the test of wills between labor unions and the government intensified. þþPresenting himself as a champion of necessary change, Mr. Sarkozy had proposed the retirement measures to help wrest France from the economic doldrums gripping many parts of Europe and to reverse years of declining fortunes before elections in 2012. With a final Senate vote on the measures expected this week and lower house approval already in hand, he believes he can bank on success. þþInitially, the vote was set for Wednesday but French news reports said that it could now be held on Thursday or even as late as Sunday, extending the confrontation as the Senate plows its way through some 400 amendments introduced by the opposition. Those tactics will delay, but probably not alter, the outcome. þþ
Source: NY Times
