Protests against economic crisis sweep France
May 15, 2009
Another day of strikes across France expresses public dismay at job losses, cost of living increases
In the latest public slap against French President Nicolas Sarkozy, hundreds of thousands of people across France last Thursday took to the the streets to denounce President Nicolas Sarkozy’s handling of the economic crisis. Estimates of total demonstrators across France topped 1 million people, with some estimates going as high as 3 million.
The protests, which polls showed are backed by three quarters of the French public, reflected a marked loss of confidence in Sarkozy’s pledges of reform.
Around one million civil servants were joined by members of the public on Thursday, with more than 200 protest marches held, officials said, in protest against the government’s handling of the economic crisis.
Thursday’s action, the second in less than two months, is not only a blunt criticism of the policies of Nicolas Sarkozy,but also the latest sign of growing social unrest in France due to the global economic downturn. The crisis has sent the number of jobless past two million and left many people struggling with the high cost of living.
With the cost of living rising, strikers are calling for higher wages, better methods for protecting employment and higher taxes for high earners.“The crisis is not the fault of the workers,” one banner read at the biggest march in Paris, where 85,000 people marched through the city, according to police.Public transport and schools, hospitals and the postal service have been affected by the strikes, which are supported by around 75 per cent of the population, according to opinion polls. About 30 percent of French schoolteachers took part in the strike on Thursday, resulting in disruption of classes all over France. A quarter of employees at France Telecom and one in five postal workers also participated, officials said. Private sector workers also participated in the protests, including employees of Air France and oil company Total.
Paris was the largest hotbed of demonstrations, but there were movements of all sizes all over France. For example in northern France, around 10,000 people protested in Clairoix over the closure of a local tire plant, which has meant a loss of 1,120 jobs.
In a similar day of action at the end of January, an estimated 2.5 million people were involved.
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