Sarkozy unbowed by strikes
21/11/2007| IslamWeb
The French president has vowed to push on with reforms as rail workers continue a nationwide strike, causing massive disruption to public transport services for the seventh successive day.
Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday broke his week-long silence, saying he would not surrender or water down his plans for thorough reforms.
He accused strikers of holding commuters "hostage" and pressed for a return to work.
State officials are supposed to meet transport unions on Wednesday, eight days after the strikes began.
But Sarkozy refused to back down, saying the country needed reforms "to meet the challenges imposed on it by the world".
"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," he said.
Thousands on streets
Al Jazeera's Tim Friend, reported from
Transport workers are angry over proposed increases in the retirement age while civil servants have protested against Sarkozy's plan not to replace some retiring workers, citing a diminishing purchasing power.
The French public, however, seemed to side with the president, who says that pension rights should be equal for all.
According to the CGT union, some 700,000 people including teachers, customs agents and tax inspectors took to the streets on Tuesday around France, but police estimates were about half of that.
The rail strike has been shown to be unpopular with the French public in opinion polls, but there is also pressure on the government to resolve the matter.
Etienne Schweisguth, a researcher at the Sciences Po School of political sciences in
"If he wins this first test of strength then a bastion will have given way. Unions, workers, leftists will be less disposed to strike in future."
PHOTO CAPTION
French President Nicolas Sarkozy delivers a speech at a meeting of the French mayors association in