PARIS — President Nicolas Sarkozy stood firm against spreading strikes Tuesday, insisting he will not water down plans for a thorough overhaul of France, even as civil servants joined the walkouts and thousands of protesters took to the streets.
Sarkozy was characteristically defiant as he broke what had been an unusual silence during a week of transit strikes that have disrupted travel across the nation. He accused the strikers of holding commuters “hostage” and called for them to return to work.
“France needs reforms to meet the challenges imposed on it by the world,” he said in a spirited speech to mayors. “These reforms have been too long in coming. . . . After so much hesitation, so much procrastination, so many backward steps, we will not surrender and we will not retreat.”
Sarkozy appears to have the upper hand in his test of strength with powerful transport unions fighting tougher pension rules. ap polls say the public strongly supports the president and strikers have been trickling back to work on subway and long-distance trains.
If he wins the faceoff, Sarkozy will improve his chances for pushing through even bigger and more ambitious reforms.
Sarkozy “hasn’t won the gamble yet, because the trains still aren’t running. But it seems he will win,” said Etienne Schweisguth, a researcher at the respected Sciences Po school of political sciences in Paris.
Talks with transport unions were to start today. But transport workers are not his only challenge.
Hundreds of thousands of civil servants — teachers, customs agents, tax inspectors and others — stayed off the job Tuesday to press their separate demands for pay raises and job security. That walkout closed schools and caused flight delays.
