PARIS — Commuters roller- skated, drove and biked to work, or simply stayed home. The biggest strike in 12 years crippled France’s public transport system Thursday and handed President Nicolas Sarkozy the biggest political test of his young presidency.
The walkout, which came on the same day Sarkozy announced his divorce from his wife, appeared set to continue for a second day and showed that the president’s ambitious plans to reform France will not be smooth. Only a third of the subway system was expected to run in Paris today.
The government was unbowed in its determination to scrap special retirement privileges for some state workers – but unions also stood firm, hoping to repeat past successes in blocking efforts to make France more competitive.
As the president left town Thursday for a European Union summit in Portugal, his compatriots were left in a nation immobilized: More than 90 percent of high-speed TGV trains were not running.
Only one Paris subway line – which is automatic, with no drivers – was running as usual. Train service to and from Britain and Belgium and beyond was moderately limited.
Thousands of marchers, many blowing bullhorns or setting off firecrackers, took to the streets in Paris – one of dozens of similar protests across the country in support of the strike.
More than half of workers at the state-run electricity and gas companies also took part in the strike, but officials said there was no effect on households or businesses.
As the workday wound down, the key question was how much momentum the strikers had to go on.
Paris subway workers voted to extend the strike – originally scheduled to last 24 hours – to today. The SNCF national rail authority said train traffic nationwide would gradually return to normal today but predicted continued disturbances throughout the morning. Rail unions said they would meet Monday to decide on any new action.
The dispute centers on Sarkozy’s plans to scrap a special pension plan meant to give advantages to those in physically tough jobs, such as miners and train drivers. They are able to retire earlier – and on more generous terms – than the vast majority of France’s working population.
The government insists that reforms are needed to keep the pension plan afloat for hundreds of thousands of workers.
Labor Minister Xavier Bertrand said he would meet with unions next week. “The government wants to succeed,” he said. “The strike doesn’t forbid dialogue.”
Over a single day, strikes are not too intolerable: Many workers simply take the day off and count it against their relatively high number of vacation days.
“If it lasts a day, it’s no big deal,” said Francine Mirano, a secretary from a Paris suburb as she arrived on one of the few trains running. “But if it goes on for a long time, that’s annoying.”
In 1995, strikes against a bolder plan to reform retirement rights dragged on for three weeks, punishing the prime minister and sapping then- President Jacques Chirac’s appetite for reform.
France’s first couple divorces
PARIS — France’s glamorous first couple is no more. President Nicolas Sarkozy and his elegant but enigmatic wife, Cecilia, called it quits and abruptly announced their divorce Thursday.
The split – a first for France – spelled the end of a seemingly passionate but deeply political power couple who had challenged the traditional role of president and first lady.
It struck a deep, personal blow to Sarkozy’s 5-month-old presidency, though friends insisted it wouldn’t dent his energetic leadership.
The 15-word statement from the presidential office said Cecilia, 49, and Nicolas, 52, mutually agreed to end their relationship of more than 20 years, 11 of them as a married couple.
The divorce, granted Monday, followed weeks of reports about an impending split, fed by frequent absences of the first lady – a title she shunned.
Until the Sarkozys, French presidents’ private lives remained largely off-limits to the media.
Both previously married, they endeared the nation at the May 16 inauguration, showing up with their blended family of five children – two each from their previous marriages, as well as their own 10-year-old son, Louis.
The Associated Press
