You Gotta Hand It To The French........

The Left is Battering the Hell out of Sarkozy!

Published On Tue Mar 23

Hospital workers demonstrate in Paris, Tuesday March 23, 2010.

 

REMY DE LA MAUVINIERE/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

 

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Elaine Ganley, The Associated Press

PARIS—President Nicolas Sarkozy's government vowed Tuesday to stay on track with belt-tightening reforms meant to modernize France's economy, despite nationwide strikes and a blistering weekend electoral defeat. Trains, schools and other public services were hobbled by the strike, culminating in around 180 protest marches around France, according to the CGT union. The biggest one was expected in Paris, where police said 31,000 turned out Tuesday afternoon. The CGT union put the number at 60,000 and said 650,000 demonstrated around France. Unions hoped their joint action would put the brakes on retirement reforms and public sector job cuts promised by Sarkozy, who has made making France's economy more globally competitive his priority. Unions say Sarkozy has failed workers, slashing jobs, particularly in education, puncturing purchasing power and now plans to attack the precious but costly pension system. Polls show barely one in three French want Sarkozy to run for a second term in 2012. Yet, the government response was defiant. Prime Minister Francois Fillon told parliamentarians the changes were needed, and would continue despite the disastrous showing in Sunday's regional elections for the governing conservative party UMP. "We will not compromise the need to modernize our country," Fillon said without flinching. "Our duty is to adapt our economic and social organization to protect the French way of life." He said France would continue to reduce the number of civil servants, the largest employment roll, by not replacing one employee in two who retires or quits. The brand new labour minister, Eric Woerth, vowed to move ahead with reforming the "extremely fragile" pension system — the most critical change expected, and Sarkozy's biggest political challenge this year. "We must maintain the goal which is that of reform. The nation needs to be competitive, to (create) the jobs of tomorrow," Woerth said, a day after his appointment in a government reshuffle to account for Sunday's election result. The UMP lost all but three of 26 regions to the Socialists and their ecology allies in the vote. Sarkozy fired his labour minister, Xavier Darcos, as a result and brought in ministers from various tendencies within the conservative movement, itself divided over Sarkozy's policies. An ally of former President Jacques Chirac, Francois Baroin, replaced Woerth as budget minister. An ally of former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, expected to launch his own party Thursday, was also added to the government, lawmaker Georges Tron, as junior minister for civil service. Francois Chereque, head of the CFDT union, said the Cabinet changes were a "bad sign about the government's social commitment. "They zap the labour minister as if it were a technical ministry with less importance," he said on France-Inter radio, noting that France has its fourth labour minister since Sarkozy took office in 2007. In another concession to Sarkozy's conservative base, the government plans to suspend an expected law to tax carbon dioxide emissions, leading UMP legislator Jean-Francois Cope said Tuesday. The carbon tax had been a central plank of Sarkozy's push for a more prominent role in the global fight against climate change. But it was criticized within Sarkozy's own party, with many arguing it would disadvantage French companies compared to European rivals. In Tuesday's strike, the French capital saw only minimal disruptions to the subway system, and fast trains to Britain and Belgium ran normally. But only 65 per cent of train traffic was guaranteed within France. An estimated 30 per cent of primary school teachers failed to show up for class nationwide, the Education Ministry said, with around 18 per cent out in junior high schools and 11 per cent out in high schools. Nearly 16 per cent of employees of the Finance Ministry also skipped work and a full 37.5 per cent were no-shows at the Budget Ministry, according to midday estimates by the Labor Ministry.

There is nothing civil about civil wars!