The Hindu : Raffarin unmoved as strike continues

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jun 12, 2003

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International

Raffarin unmoved as strike continues

By Vaiju Naravane

PARIS JUNE 11. Mozart's opera Cose Fan Tutti was in full swing at Paris' glittering Palais Garnier when desperate protestors fleeing police batons and water canon burst into the building creating pandemonium.

Outside on the streets there was chaos with demonstrators protesting Government plans to reform the country's generous pension scheme turning violent.

An estimated 300,000 people were on the streets of Paris as France remained severely affected by a crippling transport strike that has continued on and off for the past three weeks.

There were go-slows in hospitals and post offices while teachers threatened not to hold school leaving examinations.

Trade unions stepped up the pressure on Prime Minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, to withdraw a controversial pensions reform bill which went into its first reading in Parliament on Tuesday.

Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators — unions estimated turnout at over 1.5 million — took to the streets across the country in protest at the reform plan, which calls for employees, especially in the extensive public sector, to work more years to get a full pension.

Most of the rallies were peaceful but in Paris police fired tear gas and water cannon on Tuesday evening to disperse hundreds of masked protestors gathered near the National Assembly, where members of Parliament began debating the contested pensions bill.

Some 350 demonstrators burst into the central Paris Opera House to take refuge from the police, halting a performance. Police said they detained 60 of them, evacuated the audience and cordoned off the building.

Prime Minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, has refused to back down saying it would be irresponsible and suicidal not to reform the present generous pensions regime.

He has the full support of President, Jacques Chirac, but both men have seen their popularity ratings plummet in the past weeks.

"To those who are afraid, I say that this reform is one of national security," Mr. Raffarin told Parliament, hailing the proposals of his year-old centre-right government as the "fruit of social dialogue."

In Paris, only a third of buses and two thirds of metro trains were operating, and traffic authorities reported 170 km of tailbacks around the capital during the evening rush hour.

Protestors also blocked roads in and out of other French cities like Toulouse in the southwest.

100 flights were cancelled, with passengers facing delays of up to two hours.

Dock workers, post and telecommunications staff, bank employees, health care providers, police and customs officers, truck drivers and workers in the chemical and metallurgical industries also walked off the job on Tuesday.

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