French rally over pensions
There are whistle-blowers, bag pipists, horn-blowers and the pounding rhythms from the speaker systems. Stretching down the boulevard are the large balloons of unions like the CFE, CGC and the CFDT.
The atmosphere is good-humoured, almost carnival. But this is a very serious day for the French unions.
They have to build on the turnout they got last June. They said they got a million protesters on the streets then. And numbers matter. A million people or less today and observers say the government would claim the momentum had drained from the protest.
The crowds are dense, but they are mainly members of unions so far. Amongst the people I have spoken to there are doubts as to whether they can defeat President Sarkozy on this. One union official told me "if the people don't back us we'll lose".
So in a very real sense a key struggle is taking place on these noisy streets that will decide whether the French president can implement one of his key reforms. It will also play a large part in determining his political future.
I'm 
~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~23~RS~)
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I note that the over-worked French were sensible enough not to strike during their August holidays.
Meanwhile, their industrious German neighbours are increasing their retirement age from 65 to 67.
And one wonders why the French always loose their wars......
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As a well known French satirical commentator remarked on Europe 1 radio this morning, « The French people aren’t protesting about pension reform, they’re protesting because they are scared. »
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The fight: Retirement age increase from 60 to 62.
It’s hard to feel sorry when other countries, like Germany, have already taken the steps necessary to raise retirement age from 65 to 67.
It’s hard to feel sorry, but I do feel sorry for all the innocent union members and taxpayers who got vacuumed into what was fundamentally a financial, inregulated free-for-all against European soverign debt e.g. Goldman Sachs vs. Greece.
Most people know the deficits must come down; so I suspect not many expect to defeat President Sarkozy on this.
If the people back the unions, France loses. The deficit stays put, or worse still, becomes cancerous.
But Europeans should know that there is consultation going on; they should know that the EU is trying to make financial institutions accountable. Efforts are under way to push derivatives legislation ahead; the Committee of European Securities Regulators has launched a consultation paper on OTC clearing.
Guess what industrial segment is getting its back up? If you guessed unregulated American financial instituions, you would be correct.
There is also EU consultation occurring re a "Tobin Tax".
This far, EU experts are feeling somewhat stymied by the complexity of the financial transactions, but this could be overcome with ingenious programming of the taxation system.
The EU says the dangers would include tax avoidance, companies fleeing to non-EU markets such as Switzerland and increased administrative cost.
However, the EU finance ministers are not giving up; they will meet in Brussels, with Taxation Commissioner, Algirdas Semeta.
Surprisingly, Britain is traditionally hostile to moves against its financial sector, easily Europe's biggest; with a new Colaition Government is in charge, London can be expected once again to guard its own taxation powers. In my view: BIG MISTAKE!
EU leaders ordered an exploration of different taxation ideas following a public backlash against banks that were bailed out by taxpayers. The idea was to make financial markets less volatile and curb excessive risk-taking while making financial institutions pay more into public finances. Personally, I like the concept.
I don't want to see the money pooled and used for future bail-outs. I want to see the money put into action to reduce deficits and help pay for necessary social funding. I mean something must be done with these financial vultures who take, take, take and give nothing back.
The EU cited Citing Austrian data based on 2006 figures and found that a transaction tax at the rate of just 0.1 percent could raise as much as 467B dollars (372 billion euros) in Europe. But problems in taxing derivatives trading - where a "notional" value today and an "actual" value at handover could vary widely.
The EU is confident that all obstacles can be surmounted.
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In defence of All British Women!
Strikes are never a good thing everyone suffers, however sometimes the people have to stand up and be counted.
In Europe the level playing field has so many bumps. France is rebelling about raising the pension age in 2018 to 62 by then the UK age may be moving to 68. British women are perhaps the hardest done by of all. Last year they retired on a full pension at 60 by 2015 it will be 65. A group who already suffer lower than average lifetime pay (by some 120,000 GBP (?)) are losing a further 25,000 (GBP), and having to work longer. What surprises me is that they have been no strikes over the terrible unfairness of this. If anyone needs to strike British women should. British women should stand up for their rights and demand genuinely equal pay at the very least!
Let us see the French strikers campaign for British women!
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Striking sure beat working.
Particularly when Sarkozy's 'fascist' government tries to hypocricitally increase retirement age from 60 to 62, whereas everybody knows it should have been raised from 65 to 67, like in Germany, if a welfare state the French are so hooked on is to be preserved for a few more years.
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#1. MaxSceptic wrote:
"Meanwhile, their industrious German neighbours are increasing their retirement age from 65 to 67".
A telling point indeed. How can two such differing cultures share a common currency successfully?
Answer: they can't. The euro is doomed. Of course it never should have been conceived but let's not forget that Kohl was among its most enthusiastic cheer-leaders.
I wonder what will replace it. A deutschmark zone perhaps?
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The French are revolting, this has been known for some time now. The country receives over 19% of the CAP budget, has a special relationship with Germany in running the Bonn-Paris axis, and has a social welfare system that is extremely generous, but then the other EU countries help pay for their excesses. They are led by someone who makes Bush and Obama look intelligent and who continually calls for more regulation and ever closer union whilst ensuring France never conforms to the rules its signed up to.
Could I ever have a sympathy for the French protesters, no way, it's time the EU made their savings by reducing the funding given to France and ensuring they follow the EU laws, treaties and directives they've inflicted on the rest of us.
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#3.BluesBerry wrote:
"Surprisingly, Britain is traditionally hostile to moves against its financial sector, easily Europe's biggest; with a new Colaition Government is in charge, London can be expected once again to guard its own taxation powers. In my view: BIG MISTAKE!
EU leaders ordered an exploration of different taxation ideas following a public backlash against banks that were bailed out by taxpayers. The idea was to make financial markets less volatile and curb excessive risk-taking while making financial institutions pay more into public finances. Personally, I like the concept".
So do I BB, but you mustn't expect calm reason or commonsense in relation to that spawn of satan the EU to cut much ice on this blog.
And of course you're wrong to find the British government's reaction "surprising": it was foreordained. The British government - any British government - is in thrall to the UK's bloated banking sector and the Tory party gets substantial financial support from that sector. The man in the street is drip-fed a constant diet of anti-EU bile - much of which, to be fair, the EU has brought upon itself - and the grassroots tory supporters are pathologically suspicious of anything that can be construed (if you're already conditioned to see it that way) as Brussels seeking to extend its powers.
For British politicians (except the Libdems, who've tied their own hands for this parliament) the EU is a poisoned chalice, electorally.
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We should be so lucky in the U.S.A.. The retirement age is now at 67, for both men and women. It was age 62 in 1961.
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Mr Hewitt, "...determining the political future.."? I think not.
It's all grandstanding!
Sarkozy, the Unions, the demonstrators.. They can all stamp their feet with impunity because nothing very substantive is going to occur whichever 'side' supposedly claims the Public's purse-strings.
Let us face it: Win, draw or lose the France Government, Workers, Pensioners etc. will still get the result they want.
Germany will bail-out its partner in the axis-of-ill-intent because the duopoly domination of the EU needs the 2 of them to maintain the political fig-leaf of 'ever closer union'.
It's the Paris equivalent of, 'Je T'Aime Mon Non Plus'!
Mark my words, a few days from now Berlin will be singing, 'Leben Ohne Liebe Kannst Du Nicht'!
Mods: For info,
French, 'I Love You...Not!' & German 'You cannot live without love'.
Ah, they were made for each other!
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Whether France is a net contributor or a net recipient other countries which are net recipients have been letting people retire earlier than the British or the Germans.
So basically, people in the UK who cannot retire until they are 65 have been paying for others to retire earlier. In the case of Greek women as early as fifty.
The "EU" stinks.
Free Britain NOW!
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torpare @6 states:
"The euro is doomed."
And asks:
"I wonder what will replace it.?"
The answer is: two currencies
The first - the Neuro - will be used by the northern, monetarily responsible countries (Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Austria and Finland)
The second - the Seuro - will be adopted by France, the PIIGS, and other irresponsible economies.
Within a few months the Neuro will be as rock-solid as the once-proud Deutschmark. The Seuro, on the other hand, will have parity with the Albanian Grog.
And funnily enough, this development will be economically beneficial for all concerned.
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torpare
Re #8
"..EU.. spawn of satan.."!
Come now, torpare, a trifle excessive: We 'anti-EU' only call something that is really evil really evil when it is genuinely evil...
Oh, okay then, 'spawn of satan', it is!
PS: In case You take it too literally: Only teasing.
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Their govt bends to the street protestors...didnt they protest McDonalds and Walt Disney...
They'll protest in the street for any ol thing. Call their bluff.
Call em xenophobic, welfare lovers and they will protest
(see I can be fun) Its fun to make fun of that nation named ....
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John_from_Henodn
Re #4
Again, a very pertinent contribution - - sorry, shouldn't be so shocked, but You are certainly in good, considered form at the moment.
British Women are the great unsung, unheralded, unexalted back-bone of the post-WW2 UK.
Circa 1946 onward, but especially marked from the Wilson-Barbara Castle era the British female has emerged as the mainstay of so much of the UK Economy.
My Finnish wife commented a few months after on our arrival in England in the early 1970s that she had realised just how much the Englishman depended on the English woman and what is more never, ever seemed to be as appreciative as was deserved.
British females' contribution to the UK progression post-1945 is inestimable and to be rewarded with a compulsory extended Working Life is a disgrace.
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Just remember the EU/NATO thingy keeps Europe from splintering into warring parties. :)
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@Cool-Brush
Unexpectedly you have still not reacted on the initiatives from "Bruxelles" today. As I listened to the twelve o'clock news I was told:
1) The commission wants to see national budgets BEFORE they are passed in national parliaments.
2) The commission now wants to collect taxes of its own.
3) The EU parliamentarians have criticised France and other countries in the matter of romas.
OK, I know what you think, since you have written it so often. The interesting thing is that it emphasizes once again that EU - contrary to your account - is a cooperation of nation states, and therefore we shall see what the nation states say to this initiative. If you say this is a step in the direction ever more integration it is correct.
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I'll have to re-find the link but I read today (as one does!) that more than 70% of people under the age of 30 in the UK now believe that they will not have a retirement per se as the cost of private pensions will increase to become prohibitive, the universal old age pension will be reduced over time to a meaningless amount by the time they reach old age and the standard mechanisms for ensuring reasonable standards of living in old age by making savings, investing in bricks & mortar and having various stocks and shares will become worthless by the time they get to the current milestone for old age which is 65 and soon to be moved upwards.
The youthful generations are seriously going to resent the benefits that their parents and grandparents currently enjoy.
Of course, that resentment will be nothing compared to the resentment of the generations that come after who have to pay off the interest and make capital repayments for government loans taken out today to fund welfare, pensions, social services and housing benefits and the UK is already in debt to the tune of £900bn already of which only £167bn was due to monies paid to UK Banks to save the banking system from collapse.
The fact is that despite the contagion of endless discussion of cuts, cuts and cuts in the UK Public Sector – none of which are yet determined or finalised despite the doom and gloom spread by the Trade Unions, The Guardian or the BBC – the current coalition government is reducing costs by £80bn over the next 4 years BUT overall government expenditure is increasing over the same period of time… just not by so much as usual or what we, as British citizens, have become used to seeing Parliament-on-Parliament.
The rise in Pension Age to 67 in the UK is only a small part of the necessary reductions in public expenditure needed to save the UK from creating a sovereign debt burden that our children’s children will have to fund but without seeing any benefits such as we all enjoy today.
Many of the other core EU nations have enjoyed the boom in welfare provision and excessive government borrowings and wasteful expenditure like that of the UK where life expectancy has improved but the age of retirement has remained static have to realise that, just like the UK, they too will have to raise the age of subsidy for retirement.
The new member states joined the EU hoping that they too could profit from the redistribution of wealth and develop social and welfare benefits enjoyed by the original 12+1 EEC nations.
Unfortunately the Debt Bubble has burst and government borrowing has now got to be reduced.
Pension Age being raised is but one small saving in the grand scheme of savings that are necessary to save us all from drowning our children’s children in debt – wherever we live in the EU.
The French citizens are the same as any citizens elsewhere in Europe - they fear that their lifestyles, standards of living and old age comforts are being eroded. The simple fact is they have to diminish or we will all leave a legacy that we will not be forgiven for bequeathing to future generations.
We must not be that selfish!
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Mathiasen
Re #17
In acknowledging 1, 2 & 3 I would state that 1 & 2 are utterly untenable for the UK if this Coalition Government is to retain any credibility as to its 'red lines' on EU Membership claims when Cameron entered No.10.
As to the 'Roma' issue, I entirely endorse the view of any Humanitarian whether MP, MEP, or Citizen: France & Sarkozy are a disgrace for acting in such an inhumane manner.
However, I would also state that Paris is once more demonstrating to the rest of the EU Nations that when it comes to France's perceived intersts then nothing & no else's viewpoint, legislation, regulation matter at all.
Would that the UK/England Government were to show such independence of mind & thumb its political nose at Brussels as frequently and blatantly as France's Leadership!
Whilst France acts in this manner there is no way You or any 'pro-EU' can seriously claim the, "..EU... is cooperation of Nation states..": On the contrary Mathiasen, it is in reality the EU by France, EU for France, and EU will be France.
The sooner You & the rest of the EU supporters grasp that simple fact the sooner Europe can escape this political monstrosity.
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As in the past, the financial services and banking industry has robbed everyone to enrich themselves. The bankers have not lost anything and governments rushed to insure the stockholders of the banks did not lose any money while everyone else took losses in personal wealth. The bankers see the solution as attacking the workers, as they always do. This is simply an attack on workers and if you think the retirement age should be this or that it does not matter because this is the beginning of paying for the greed of bankers. It is always odd that people become upset over working people having some options other than working until death but do not seem to find anger when bankers pay bonuses for destroying the economic systems. There is more to life than work and making other people wealthy. The governments walk hand in hand with the bankers and both deserve the same fate.
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@20, ghostofsichuan
I don't know. I think that you are wasting your words in the wrong crowd. It is not only the banks. It is the whole system. Lets get competitive. Competitive over what? A Chinese worker that works for nothing till he dies? Look people, in Asia they have the feudal system back and they reintroducing slavery. Lets do that to become competitive.
Instead of having Germans revolt about their pensions going from 65 to 67, we have them revolting against French defending their 60 year old ones. Yes, let us have 30% unemployment while cutting back on unemployment benefits. People will have to work for a plate of food that way. Wonders for our competitiveness.
Profiting for whom? The banker that will retire on an off shore heaven or your boss that will keep him company?
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Cool Brush,
Actually, I would not mind if a lot of things from France became the standard all over the Union, only it will not happen. For a lot of reasons.
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This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
#22. At 12:16pm on 09 Sep 2010, Mathiasen wrote:,
Oh dear, I seem to have broken one of the EU commandments, thou shalt not criticise the French.
I was merely pointing out a long list of faults in the French way of working that would surely result in the dissolution of the current EU if made a standard across the EU.
PS. "only it will not happen", because most countries are fully aware of the French ability for self destruction.
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