French strike costing €400mn daily
Press TV – October 25, 2010
France’s Finance Minister Christine Lagarde has warned that the country’s massive strikes are costing the French economy up to 400 million euros a day.
Lagarde said on Monday that the economic cost is between 200 million euro (£178 million) and 400 million euro (£356 million) every day the unions call for strikes protesting the pension reform law, the Associated Press reported. The French minister added that the media images showing street battles between the anti-riot police and protesters have damaged the country’s image. She warned that strikes against French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s pension reform have threatened to derail France’s still fragile economic recovery.
“Today, we shouldn’t be weighing down this recovery with campaigns that are painful for the French economy and very painful for a certain number of small and medium-sized businesses,” Lagarde noted.
Ongoing protests and strikes against the government’s pension reforms have led to fuel shortages and travel chaos throughout the country. A quarter of the country’s gas stations have run dry due to strikes at refineries and blockades of fuel depots by the protesters.
The strikers are hoping the disruptions will finally force Sarkozy’s government to cancel a plan to increase the retirement age from 60 to 62. But the government insists that the reform is necessary to reduce the country’s budget deficit.
The French Senate voted Friday to pass the proposed pension reform, which is expected to win final approval this week.
A recent opinion poll shows Sarkozy’s approval rating has sunk to a record low of 29 percent. The latest polls have also shown that a vast majority of the French people support the walkout.
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