Protests Across France to Test Government Resolve over Pension Reform

Hundreds of thousands of people were expected to take part in demonstrations across France on Saturday as protesters seek to keep up the pressure on the government over its plans to make people work longer before retiring. After three days of nationwide strikes since the start of the year, unions are hoping to match a mass turnout from Jan. 19 when more than a million people marched in opposition to pushing the age to take a full state pension to 64 from 62. “I am expecting a lot of people. We need to be extremely numerous,” Laurent Berger, head of the CFDT union, the country’s largest, said on Friday, adding that some 250 demonstrations were planned across the country. “There is a form of contempt (from the government).

There is no answer to the (social) movement and there needs to be one.” The French spend the largest number of years in retirement among OECD countries – a benefit that opinion polls show a substantial majority are reluctant to give up. “I am expecting a lot of people. We need to be extremely numerous,” Laurent Berger, head of the CFDT union, the country’s largest, said on Friday, adding that some 250 demonstrations were planned across the country. “There is a form of contempt (from the government). There is no answer to the (social) movement and there needs to be one.” The French spend the largest number of years in retirement among OECD countries – a benefit that opinion polls show a substantial majority are reluctant to give up.

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