As I have often been told and am quickly discovering, striking(faire la greve) and demonstrations(manifestations) are a way of life over here. However these strikes have taken a turn toward the more violent side in certain cities, specifically Lyon, Marseille, and a school was burned down in Le Mans, which is only an hour from Laval. Here in Laval while the demonstrations are less ubiquitous as compared to the larger cities like Paris, there is a strong presence of mostly high school aged students that have been demonstrating this entire week, and most especially this past Tuesday. One day over 6,000 people protested, which is a strong number for a relatively small city and over an issue such as changing the minimum retirement age from 60 to 62.
Furthermore, oil workers are striking(as well as most public transportation), so almost a third of gas stations in France are closing because of a lack of gas. The gas station near my apartment had extremely long lines at the beginning of the week, and now it is blocked off. Even today when I was walking home from one of my schools, probably around a couple hundred high school students were sitting along a main road to block traffic, displaying signs saying "Sarko foutu" meaning Sarkozy is finished.
Last night the Senat voted on the law and decided to reflect on a systematic retirement reform, vague I know: "Les sénateurs ont voté dans la nuit de mercredi à jeudi un amendement de la majorité sénatoriale prévoyant en 2013 de "réfléchir" à "une réforme systémique" autrement dit une retraite par points"
check out lemonde.fr to really follow the manifestations everyday and the senate voting as well : http://www.lemonde.fr/depeches/2010/10/21/les-senateurs-votent-une-mesure-pour-reflechir-a-la-retraite-par-points_823448_354_43666846.html
There are several good articles in the magazine Le Pointe and the newspaper for this departement, l'ouest france, which outline the different sides of the retirement reform debate. Most member of the UMP, Sarko's more right-wing party, are for the retirement reform for practical reasons of reducing France's national debt. Furthermore, this is the general trend across Europe, especially in Great Britain and Germany. So the practical economic arguments are strong.
ouest france published two testimonies (both from UMP members which isn't exactly balanced), which displayed the arguments for and against the reform.
The first spokesperson was the Departmental Secretary of the UMP in La Mayenne( Samia Soultani): She labels the political initiative 'Une reforme indispensable et juste' vis-a-vis the UMP Deputy of La Mayenne(Marc Bernier), who voted against the reform, 'Depute UMP, jai vote contre la reforme'
FOR(UMP): "This is about saving our system of retirement. The life expectancy has increased by 15 years as compared to 1950. We thus cannot continue with 60, as the minimum age of retirement...Furthermore the Senate has compromised on many aspects of the bill. Women with three children and born between 1951 and 1956, will receive full benefits beginning at age 65..." She goes on to describe how necessary this reform is in order to provide any kind of retirement to French citizens, and then claims that the overwhelming majority of the UMP support the reform. And of course in classic political fashion, she targets the PS(Socialist Party) as out of touch with reality(which is not that far off I would say). She ends byt acknowledging the protests and strikes, but then somberly states: "On ne fait pas de la politique pour etre populaire" "We don't do politics to be popular" ......silence....question mark. well good luck to UMP and Sarko with trying to run the alleged "populist campaign" and characterize themselves as a part of the people and the working class...
AGAINST (UMP): "As a social gaullist, I think that this retirement reform is not good, both in its foundation and in how its being carried out...Contrary to what the UMP states, this reform does not regulate anything on financing retirement. Five years from now, we will have to find new means for for financial support. We must find other resources than those coming from the salaries paid to those who are retired. We must impose capital revenues and patrimony, which are not currently taxed to the extent they should be...I wish that all women can receive full retirement benefits beginning at the age of 65, irrespective of their individual conditions(years of work, number of children, etc.) We must return to a shared solidarity of wealth..." He ends with the oppositie idea of the previous UMP member...."We must renegotiate to arrive at a consensus. We do not pass reforms against the will of the people."
I was able to take a few photos of the protestors yesterday, so take a look!
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