More protests planned after France passes pension reform

The National Assembly voted 336 for and 233 against the law, which raises the minimum retirement age from 60 to 62, on the eve of the latest in a series of protests that have threatened to bring France to a standstill.

Sarkozy must now sign off on the law and publish it in the official gazette, which a presidential advisor has said will happen around November 15.

Unions have nevertheless called for a ninth day of action on Thursday, including strikes and protest marches in more than 100 towns and cities, and another day of "family rallies" is planned for November 6.

Prime Minister Francois Fillion urged the country to pull itself out of the crisis, saying "the law of the Republic should now be respected by all" even as Socialists vowed to take the law before the Constitutional Court.

"Everyone should know how to come out of this protest with responsibility and a mutual respect," Fillon said in a statement.

"In increasing the legal retirement age an important step has been taken to protect our welfare system in the face of the effect of demographic ageing. Our fellow citizens can view the future of their pensions with more confidence."

Socialist lawmaker Marisol Touraine however charged that the law punishes the poor.

"You\'ve spoken a lot about courage," she told Labour Minister Eric Woerth, the architect of the law. "But you\'ve chosen to make the weakest pay, to attack those with the least means."

And Socialist leader Martine Aubry accused the government of abusing parliamentary procedure to shut down democratic debate, and pledged to fight on to delay the law being enacted.

"I tell the president, you won\'t win against the French people," she said.

Despite the call for fresh protests, Sarkozy\'s supporters have pointed to a tailing off of industrial action in key sectors such as refining and fuel distribution as evidence that the strikers have failed.

Protests since the start of September repeatedly brought more than a million people onto the streets and the battle between unions and the government has seen Sarkozy\'s approval rating collapse to less than 30 percent.

Thursday\'s rally falls during the French half-term school holidays, and the president\'s camp is hoping that this, alongside the passage of the law, will see the protest movement losing steam and a slow return to normal.

Half of France\'s 12 refineries are returning to full production after workers voted to resume work, even if petrol is still in short supply with one filling station in five out of service.

And late Tuesday truckers warned of continuing shortages of petrol for two or three more weeks.

"There are still a lot of supply problems. There won\'t be a return to normal for another two or three weeks, at best," Nicolas Paulissen, a representative of the French truckers\' federation FNTR, told AFP.

Rail travel has all but returned to normal after a train drivers\' strike hit the buffers, and Marseille bin men have begun to clear the 10,000 tonnes of rubbish that built up in the streets.

Thursday might yet see another impressive one-day strike, however, and protests planned for November 6 threaten to embarrass Sarkozy during a state visit by President Hu Jintao of China.

Strikes on Thursday will force the cancellation of 50 percent of flights at Paris Orly airport and 30 percent at other airports, the civil aviation authority DGAC said, similar to the previous day of action on October 19.

At the same time, unions said that public transport workers in 29 towns and cities would strike on Thursday, the seventh day of anti-pension reform strikes since August, down from a peak of 103 in September.

Previous strike-day rallies have drawn huge crowds, usually more than a million according to police estimates and as high as 3.5 million according to the unions, but labour leaders were cautious not to raise expectations.

"Our objective is not to beat any records," conceded Bernard Thibault, head of the powerful CGT union, in an interview with the daily Liberation.

"But from what we\'re hearing from the ground, we\'ll see another good level of mobilisation, which will show that level of anger has not diminish."

Sarkozy is aware that the law has not won him any new friends, but he is hoping that by facing down the protests he will appear strong in the eyes of his right-wing base as he prepares to seek re-election in 2012.

In the coming days he is expected to symbolise the re-launch of his strategy with a major cabinet reshuffle.

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