It's Monday October 25, 2010 and the start of a 2-week long school break. The winds are blowing something fierce outside but thankfully it's not the Le Bise, the cold wind that blows over the Alps and lasts for days.
In other parts of France, there is another storm brewing. Since September 7, there's been 6 massive general gréves (strikes) against the French government's proposal to reduce national spending by:
1. raising the normal retirement age for public pensions from 65 to 67
2. raising the age of early reduced pensions from age 60 to 62
In Bellegarde and towns near the Swiss frontier, I have not seen or experienced any strikes. But in early September when we were in the Provence, we saw a small protest in Avignon as they were breaking for the lunch hour. Strikers still have to eat you know..and it's France so they probably had a 2 hour lunch break :)
Although it's a national controversy that's covered in the papers and French television every day, it's pretty much status quo here. We're still able to fuel up on petrol (gasoline) although the prices have risen; the highways move smoothly; the garbage is collected every Tuesday morning.
In contrast, larger cities such as Paris, Marseilles, Lyon, Toulouse have been harder hit. In Marseilles, the stench is overwhelming as garbage is piling up in the streets. In Paris and other major cities, 2/3 of TGV trains are running, up from 1/3 in September as public workers at railways joined the strikes. Flights in and out of Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports are still not running at full capacity. Julia and Mike went to Night of the Stars at the Boston Ballet last night. There was a last minute replacement because 1 of the ballerinas could not make it out of Paris to Boston due to the strikes.
In Lyon and other cities, lyceens (high school students) are joining the strikes by the thousands. On occasion, cars are being overturned and burned and stores are being vandalized and looted. The gendarme (the military police, or the "armed people" if you translate it literally) are on guard and in a few cases, they have fired rubber bullets and used tear gas to control the crowds. Public workers at all 12 oil refineries are on strike which has lead to a shortage of gas. Actually 1/4 of the 13,000 or so gas stations in France have run out of gasoline. Stations that have gas have enormous lines and high prices. And then there are the "escargots", or snail protests which some truckers are staging. How does it work? The truckers drive in teams very slowly on the highways while others block fuel depots and/or stop distributing cash to ATMs. There's been a bit of panic about the shortage of petrol, but a shortage of cash?
Is this a revolt against the proposed pension reform? Which by the way was only reduced in 1983 from age 65 to age 60 by Francois Mitterand for public pensioners. Is it against Sarkozy whose popularity has hit its lowest point? Is it a revolt because of the general discontent in France due to high unemployment? How long will these strikes last? And how much damage has it done to the French economy and the France's reputation abroad? The reform has been recently approved by both the Assemblé Nationale and the Senate..and will probably be enacted into law sometime next week. I wonder how much longer until this storm passes. There are 2 additional strikes planned: one tomorrow and another on November 6.
I don't have a strong opinion about the reform but the way it's happening is typically French. Like the U.S., France has many baby-boomers who are living longer and longer. The public pension system is going to run dry in 6-8 years if nothing is done soon! But instead of the French government and the unions engaging together, the French government is just dictating the change. France's government is very centralized, and much of the power is in Paris and emanates from there to the regional prefectures. The French are demonstrating because they think the government should reduce tax cuts to the very rich instead of reforming the public pension system which they worked so hard to get in 1983 and the following years.
R and I are planning to go to Lyon tomorrow. I need to satisfy a macaron fix and we plan to go to Institut Vatel (Vatel Hotel Business School) where they have an excellent restaurant run by culinary students. If there are demonstrations, I hope they are peaceful. It will also be nice if we can avoid any potential escargots on the autoroute! Looking forward to Sarkozy's TF1 appearance on Wed at 8pm local time to see what he has to say about the past 2 months of conflict.
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