May Day in France disappoints unions by Zuzana Zelenakova

In many countries May Day is identified as International Workers´ Day and therefore it is marked by demonstrations or other activities organized mostly by unions. This year, May Day demonstrations in France targeted President Nicolas Sarkozy´s pension reform. The right wing French government has in mind an overhaul of pensions that could result in raising the current retirement age of 60 in the country. "With this umpteenth pension reform, we will once again see who ends up paying," said Veronique Manseguerra, who took part in Nantes protests. "The rich hide behind a wall of money and the poor get poorer." According to the union leaders, last year, more than one ! million people participated in participated in demonstrations, however, the police estimation was much lower, about 465,000. Compared to the 2009 May Day figures this year was a bit of a disappointment for the organizers who originally predicted much higher turnout. An estimated 300, 000 people came to the streets. Paris protesters shouted "You had to experience the crisis in 2009, are you now going to have to pay for it in 2010?". The retirement age in France is currently 60, which is much lower than in other European countries. For example, in Germany and Denmark it is 67, in Britain there are plans to push the retirement age even higher to 68. The French government informed that its pension deficit will be about 1.7 billion euros this year, and by 2020 it is expected to rise to 50 billion euros. The growing national debt forces the country to cut spending. "It's urgent now because of the demographics," said Professor Laurent Marouani from HEC Business School. "Now, man! y people born between 1945 and 1952 are going to retire, so it! 's becom ing urgent because how are we going to pay for these people in two to three years?"

related story (sgx17148): http://www.france24.com/en/20100501-france-may-day-rallies-l...

by Zuzana Zelenakova for Cantell TV (http://cantell.tv)

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