DEAUVILLE, France: French President Nicolas Sarkozy vowed Monday that his plan to raise the retirement age will pass, despite protests that have sparked street clashes and strikes causing fuel shortages.“This reform is essential. France is committed to it. France will carry it out, just as our German friends carried out a pensions reform a few years ago,” Sarkozy told a joint news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Unions have called a day of mass demonstrations on Tuesday, the sixth day of coordinated nationwide actions in less than two months, against the plan that would raise the standard retirement age from 60 to 62.
On Monday French youths battled riot police, truckers blocked roads and filling stations ran dry as the protests escalated, but the government has so far shown no sign of backing down.
“It is perfectly normal and natural that this (reform) causes worries and opposition,” Sarkozy added, in comments to reporters in Deauville, western France, where he was due to hold a summit with Russia and Germany.
“It is also normal and natural that a democratic government...should ensure motorists can find fuel and that there are no clashes.”
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